Algerian judo coach Amar Benikhlef about dealing with Covid-19
7 Mar 2021 11:55
Nicolas Messner and Leandra Freitas
IJF Gabriela Sabau / International Judo Federation
Algerian judoka Amar Benikhlef was 2008 Olympic finallist in Beijing. Benikhlef is multiple African Champion in 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2011 and was inducted into the IJF Hall of Fame in 2018. After his career he became head coach of Algeria. The IJF spoke with the coach about dealing with the Covid situation.
“Concerning our preparation, with the Covid situation, we found a lot of difficulty because we stopped for almost 8 months. We did nothing, because in Algeria everything was closed, total confinement. When we restarted our training we found athletes in very poor condition physically. Some had an impressive weight change. For example our U73 kg judoka came back at 86kg. It was not easy as he is qualifying for the Olympics at U73kg. We put a big nutritional plan in place and a physical training programme was used to bring him down again.