Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 22
The last word on shooting’s exclusion from the 2022 Commonwealth Games is yet to be heard. After Indian sports administrators called for a boycott of the 2022 Birmingham CWG, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Louise Martin and CEO David Grevemberg flew down to India to try to calm tempers.
After the officials met the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) top brass, including president Narinder Batra and secretary general Rajeev Mehta, CGF said all options are still on the table. Martin told the media last week: “We are working on it. We are working on different scenarios and let’s wait and see what happens.” One of the alternatives that have been mooted is to host a parallel shooting championship around the same time in Chandigarh. Martin and Grevemberg met National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh at a dinner with Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore, who is also the administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
A formal proposal regarding such an event in Chandigarh is yet to be sent from NRAI to IOA. Once this proposal reaches IOA, it will be sent to CGF for consideration. If all goes to plan, the upcoming shooting range near Mullanpur may play host to the shooting championships in 2022.
“They (CGF) raised the issue of rising costs as a hindrance to get shooting back into CWG. It is clear they don’t have the money, so we pitched in saying we can do it here,” said a source.
“They certainly looked interested in this idea as they look to try and find a solution to this mess. But a formal proposal has not been sent to CGF as of yet. IOA will take a lead in this,” he added.
Parallel championship
Hosting a parallel shooting championship in Birmingham itself during CWG 2022 was one of the first ideas mooted. During the meeting in Delhi, IOA requested Martin that the medals tally of the parallel shooting event should be added to the main CWG medal tally.
Shooting’s global governing body, ISSF, had offered to subsidise the cost of bringing shooting back on the CWG 2022 programme. ISSF also offered to cover the cost of the deployment of referees and jury.
The shooting range at Bisley, a town around 210km from Birmingham, could have hosted the CWG 2022 shooting events, but it needs to be repaired, and the estimated cost is around $7 million. However, the idea to spend money on its repair was vetoed by the local organisers. They said since the range is not part of the local community, they would not get a clearance from the local authorities to spend public money to refurbish it.
The Bisley range was used as the shooting venue during the 2002 Manchester CWG.
Manu, Saurabh win ISSF President’s Trophies
Putian (China): India finished their engagements at the ISSF World Cup Finals on a high, with their shooters featuring in teams that won the President’s Trophies for both the 10m air pistol and air rifle mixed team competitions. In the mixed air pistol final, Manu Bhaker first paired with world No. 1 Russian Artem Chernousov to get the better of the India’s Saurabh Chaudhary and Olympics champion Anna Korakaki 17-13. It was then the turn of Divyansh Singh Panwar to team up with Croatian legend Snjezana Pejcic to win the trophy in the 10m air rifle mixed team competition. Panwar and Snjezana prevailed 16-14 over India’s Apurvi Chandela and D Zhang. It got even better when
Shahzar Rizvi also won the bronze in the 10m air pistol mixed team competition. — PTI
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