Different Basque federations of «individual» sports, those of Basque Pelota, Tennis, Paddle and Table Tennis, have requested «to be able to play», both at “school and federated level”, to “almost zero risk of contagion” that they understand occurs in those modalities. In a joint note signed by their respective presidents, Gotzon Embil, Igor del Busto, Jorge Peñín and Víctor González de Echávarri, the four federations “They request to be able to play, and train up to 6 people, both at school and federated level” and they explain several reflections “in relation to the restrictions applied to sport by the Covid-19 of last November 6”.
The federations maintain that their sports are “individual” in which the “risk of contagion” is “almost zero” and, furthermore, they consider that “These sports are niches of refuge from the virus”. In this regard, they believe that, «regarding the risk of contagion, not all sports are the same and therefore should be treated differently, just as it happens in other areas ”.
And they assure that they have “no evidence of any contagion either in training (schools, courses, etc.) or in the championships and tournaments held” in their federations when “they were allowed.” On the other hand, it is clear that since “sport is health, it strengthens the immune system” and supposes “a psychological and stress reinforcement in the face of confinements and crises”, understand that “therefore it should be treated as an essential activity”.
Given the «difficulty of contagion due to their characteristics», he considers that their sports «make them occupy leisure time with healthy and non-contagious activities» and that with this, they avoid «meetings of young people, crowds in children’s parks and parents, adult meetings, parties … ».
«They are sports specialties that are made in open, semi-open or sufficiently spacious and ventilated spaces, with much more separation than security between the practitioners, and even with physical elements that determine this distance “, explain the reasons why they understand that” they should be able to be performed in any circumstance other than that of total confinement. “
They also believe that “there should be no differentiation between the different levels of competition categories or levels of federative license”, but rather “authorize the practice of these sports specialties to all the people who so decide, channeling this practice through clubs and corresponding federations ”.
“Our clubs and professionals take all the established sanitary measures in addition to having taken the compulsory Anti-Covid Protocols courses for the councils,” they add. The leaders of the four federations also do not understand “why the provincial councils and city councils adopt even more restrictive measures with respect to those dictated by the Basque Government in the matter of sport ”.
And they denounce that “due to the closure decreed in the sector, despite being safe, the clubs and professionals” of these federations have seen their income reduced in some cases by up to 100% “. Thus, They request “that their sports can be practiced” “in a standardized manner with all the security measures in force, such as the use of hydroalcoholic gel, the safety distance, the non-use of changing rooms and the use of a mask”. And they undertake “to work in a coordinated way” with the institutions and their “departments of Culture and Sports to define the parameters that are necessary so that they can live together in a safe and healthy way.”
.
