The president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Raninder Singh, has assured the shooting fraternity that every effort was being made to keep the sport in the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham.
With shooting accounting for 24 % of the team’s medals, and 27% of the gold at Gold Coast, Raninder said that it was important to fight for the sport’s retention.
Addressing the media, in the company of shooters who had competed and won medals at Gold Coast, Raninder revealed that meetings had been held with the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and the Birmingham organising committee in this matter. He added that the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) had also had meetings with the CGF.
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With the Bisley range, which had hosted 2002 CWG events, about 70 kilometres from Birmingham, Raninder said that it was baffling to find the organisers talk about the issues of legacy etc. “British shooting is equally upset, as they had placed third on the medals table,” said Raninder.
Raninder said that he was pleading with the government to boycott the Birmingham Games if shooting was not retained. “It is absolutely unfair to remove an Olympic sport. First they removed the pairs competition, then they removed some events, and now they are removing the sport,” lamented Raninder.
“There are issues with shooting in Asian Games also, as some events have been removed, but at least the sport is there in the schedule,” said Raninder.
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He said it was arbitrarily decided to drop the sport from the Birmingham Games without any notification or discussion.
With the sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore having already written to the CGF, Raninder said that he would request for the government’s further involvement to retain the sport at Birmingham.