Pyeongchang: A day before the beginning of the Winter Olympics, the Indian flag was raised at the Games Village at a formal team welcome ceremony here.
Luger Shiva Keshavan, Indian contingent’s chef-de-mission Harjinder Singh and the mayor of the Games Village were present during the brief ceremony.
“The Indian contingent was formally welcomed at the Games Village Thursday by the mayor of the Games Village. The Tricolour was raised during the welcome ceremony. We are proud to represent the country,” Harjinder said.
“We have been looked after well by the organisers and we have no problems as such here except that it is very cold, below minus 20 degree celsius,” he added.
Cross country skier Jagdish Singh is, however, yet to arrive at this resort town of South Korea and is expected to join the team Friday. Jagdish was to arrive here February 4 along with Krshavan but his departure from India was delayed due to confusion over who will accompany him as coach.
Harjinder said that Keshavan, who is taking part in his sixth Winter Olympics, has started training for his event. “Jagdish was not there during the team welcome ceremony. He is arriving Friday. But Shiva has started his training drills,” Harjinder, also the general secretary of Ice Hockey Association of India, said.
The four heats of luge men’s singles events in which Keshavan will participate will take place February 10 and 11. The final result will come out with the total time earned from the four runs. Jagdish will compete in the 15-km Nordic skiing freestyle event February 16. The Winter Olympic Games kick off Friday with the opening ceremony.
press trust of india