The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has postponed the Olympic selection committee meeting which was scheduled for Friday.
With the growing uncertainty triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the NRAI also decided to postpone all the coaching camps scheduled for April.
“We urge all Olympics-bound shooters and national coaches to refrain from coming to the range till further notice, and request that they continue with their respective training schedules from their home base, as best as they can,” said the president of the NRAI, Raninder Singh, in a statement.
Requesting the senior coaches to refrain from travel, the NRAI president urged the shooting fraternity to not lose focus on the main goal of best performance in the Olympics in Tokyo, as and when it was held.
With 15 shooters having qualified for the Olympics, the original plan was to announce the Olympic team after the World Cup in Delhi, which has subsequently been postponed to May.
In an attempt to compensate for the requisite scores, the NRAI went ahead and conducted the selection trials for all the Olympic qualified shooters.
Some suspense
Even though most of the shooters would comfortably be holding on to their Olympic quota that they had won in the World Championship, World Cups and the Asian Championship, there could be some suspense in a couple of events, as to who would be chosen by the national federation to represent the country in the Olympics.
With the situation fluid, the NRAI realised that there was no urgency to finalise the Olympic team, as the world of sports had been compelled to face weeks of inaction, owing to the global concern for everyone’s health.
Meanwhile, the public dealings at the NRAI House in Tughlakabad have also been stopped till the end of the month.
It has been stated that no visitors would be allowed at the shooting headquarters, and senior NRAI officials would work from home.
