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With shooting out, NRAI chief Raninder Singh wants 2022 CWG to be boycotted

Shooting has always been an optional sport at the CWG, but has been a part of every edition since Kingston 1966, except once in Edinburgh, 1970

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Shooter Anish Bhanwala
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With shooting excluded from the next edition of the Commonwealth Games, country’s top sports official has requested the Indian government to boycott the event to be held in Birmingham in 2022.

This comes even as Indian shooters celebrate their stupendous success in the recently-concluded CWG in Gold Coast, Australia, where they won 16 medals, seven of them gold that guided India to finish third in overall standings.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh has called upon the government to boycott the next edition of the CWG to protest the arbitrary exclusion of shooting event from the competition.

Shooting has always been an optional sport at the CWG, but has been a part of every edition since Kingston 1966, except once in Edinburgh, 1970.

Raninder’s contention is that some officials are purposely doing it as events from the competition have gradually been reduced. “Initially pairs event was excluded, then it was followed by team event. Now, shooting has been completely scrapped by the Birmingham Organising Committee from 2022 schedule. This is not acceptable,” he said on Tuesday.

With shooting being India’s best bet for last so many editions of CWG, it would drastically reduce country’s medal tally haul in case the decision is not taken back by the organisers.

“Top shooters contribute major chunk of medals in the CWG. If the discipline doesn’t feature in the schedule, India’s position in the medal tally will drastically come down. I, therefore, strongly appeal to the sports ministry and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to withdraw Indian team from the 2022 edition of the CWG,” reasoned NRAI chief.

The NRAI already have had three meetings with the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) and the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), but has failed to elicit any positive response.

Raninder said that scrapping shooting from CWG appears to be a move to cut costs. “Setting up new shooting ranges is a costly affair, and Games organisers don’t want want to shift it to Bisley, which hosted shooting events during the 2002 CWG.”

Another reason which has been put forward by the organisers is the lack of followers in shooting events. However, NRAI president altogether rejected this contention saying: “That’s completely incorrect because I have witnessed a big surge in following for shooting during (the) Gold Coast competition.”

Sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore also has written letters to both CGF chief Louise Martin and British MP Matt Hancock, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, and urged their intervention so that the discipline remains a part of the 2022 edition of the quadrennial Games.

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