17 Hours Journey To India, Indonesian Women's National Team Prepares Stamina To Look Excellent

The women's national team arrives in India (Photo: PSSI)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian women's national team has arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharai international airport, India to appear in the 2022 Women's Asian Cup competition. After traveling for approximately 17 hours from Indonesia, the Garuda Pertiwi squad immediately rested fully to prepare stamina for maximum results in the competition.

Upon arrival in India, the players, coaches and official staff took a PCR swab test first at the airport and headed to the team hotel at the Royal Orchid Grazia hotel, Navi Mumbai. While waiting for the test results, the players were relieved of any activity so that they could rest optimally.

"It was a tiring journey for all the players, coaches and staff, but thank God we arrived safely at the team hotel," said head coach of the women's national team Rudy Eka Priyambada in an official statement received by VOI, Tuesday.

"There hasn't been any activity beforehand, so everyone must rest and maintain conditions, while waiting for the PCR results to come out," continued the coach.

In addition to restoring stamina after a long trip, this recommendation for rest is also a way to follow the health protocol recommendations. As per the advice of the Indian government, coaches, players and all official staff are not allowed to leave the rooms until the PCR results are declared safe.

For this reason, activities for the women's national team on the first day after landing were practically just waiting for the PCR results and resting.

“Today my friends and everyone are quite tired because of the long journey from Jakarta. Because there is no training, so we just rest and maintain a diet while waiting for the coach's instructions, hopefully all is safe so we can immediately train together on the field, "said Viny Silfianus.

During the 2022 Women's Asian Cup competition in India, all teams are in a bio bubble competition system, where teams are only allowed to be in hotels, practice fields and match stadiums. All players and officials are not allowed to leave the bio bubble areas because they follow the Indian government regulations regarding handling COVID-19 cases and regulations from the AFC.

If later all players and officials test negative for COVID-19, then the team is allowed to hold training tomorrow morning. The plan is that the Garuda Pertiwi squad will have their first training session on Tuesday, January 18, with a total training duration of approximately two hours at the Yasvant Rao training ground, Mumbai.

The exercise was carried out in preparation for the inaugural match of the Group B phase against Australia at the Mumbai Football Arena Stadium on January 21. Indonesia itself is in Group B along with Australia, Thailand and the Philippines.