While Delhi University student Apurvi Chandela aims to win laurels for the country in the Rio Olympics next year, she may have to give up the opportunity of representing her university at the World University Games (Universiade-2015) to be held in July this year.
Apurvi who has been out of India for the last two months taking part in different tournaments at Shooting World Cup was not able to attend the trials for Universade held in Punjabi University in Patiala in the third week of May. Due to this, her nomination to attend the event has been cancelled by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
Delhi University, pushing for Apurvi’s participation in the world championship has written a letter to the AIU in this regard but have not received any response so far.
“We have written a letter to the AIU seeking exemption from trials for Apurvi Chandel who has won gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and has qualified for the Rio Olympics. She is currently participating in different shooting tournaments. From May 26 to June 2, she was in Germany and before that she was in the US.
Our point is that they should see her performance in the tournaments in which she had participated and consider her eligibility on that ground,” said an official from DU Sports Council.
“We had written a letter on May 22 but so far there has been no reply from AIU. When we contacted them recently, they said that they are looking into the matter,” the official added.
When contacted, senior official of AIU refused to comment. According to university officials, Apurvi is keen to participate in Universade and has already fixed her schedule accordingly. However, she is still awaiting a nod from the authorities.
Apurvi Chandela is a student of Sociology (Hons) in Delhi University’s Jesus and Mary College.
