Arindam Ganguly, OP
Bhubaneswar: In an attempt to motivate people to stay fit during the ongoing lockdown, the Odisha Sports and Youth Services Department has started ‘Fit to Beat COVID-19’ campaign under which the department is asking people to share their fitness videos using #FitToBeatCOVID19 hashtag and inspire others.
Supporting the initiative many sports personality such as athlete Dutee Chand, chess player Padmini Rout, hockey legend Dilip Tirkey, Olympian Anuradha Biswal, badminton sensation Rutaparna Panda, para shuttler Pramod Bhagat and others shared their fitness regime.
https://twitter.com/sports_odisha/status/1251195082759385090
Dutee Chand tweeted Kindly follow the lockdown protocols and be grateful to all the frontline workers especially the health personnel. Dilip Tirkey tweeted, as a player, a captain and a political leader, I have performed my responsibilities. Now, I perform my responsibilities as a citizen.
https://twitter.com/sports_odisha/status/1244895705006661632
Pramod Bhagat said, “Here’s your chance to do something that impacts a billion! Stay home and save lives! Staying home stops you from catching the virus and being a carrier of it as well.”
Bhagat also donated Rs 2 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund towards fighting COVID-19.
The sporting icons inspired many denizens who joined the initiative.
Bhubaneswar based Priyanka Singh Deo, who works as an IT consultant in TCS covered a long distance even when staying indoors. She completed 41 kilometres by walking 54,671 steps.
Priyanka says fitness is essential for every individual and especially so during these tough times when the world is fighting COVID-19. It is very important that we all stay fit and build our immunity.
Rajeev Nath, a fitness expert said people can do home-friendly exercises such as shoulder press, tricep extension, side lateral raises, biceps curl and band squat etc to maintain fitness.
Apart from this campaign the sports department also started sports quiz competition in social media and also streamed videos of sports experts and personality who gives tips in maintaining fitness both mental and physical during the lockdown.