Kiren Rijiju writes for including shooting in 2022 Commonwealth Games, CGF says no

In his letter to Morgan, Rijiju said shooting is a popular sport in India and it's exclusion has "agitated" a lot of stakeholders back home.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju (Photo | PTI)
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju (Photo | PTI)

CHENNAI: IN a last-ditch effort to get shooting in the 2022 Commonwealth Games programme, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju wrote a letter to his UK counterpart seeking government intervention to include the sport in the programme for the 2022 edition. But the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) remained steadfast. They maintained that shooting will be off the programme. Its exclusion from the Birmingham Games will be discussed during the CGF’s General Assembly in Rwanda this week, but there will be no attempts to pay heed to Rijiju’s request made in the letter.

“(...) General Assembly with all countries except India, who chose to not attend. Shooting will be discussed (during the assembly) but it definitely won’t be brought back for 2022,” a CGF source said.
Rijiju, in his letter addressed to UK Sports Minister Nicky Morgan, requested her personal intervention to get shooting included in the programme. 

“I am writing this letter to seek your personal intervention to get the sport of shooting included in the Commonwealth Games, 2022 scheduled to be held in Birmingham, UK,” Rijiju wrote. “(...) Unfortunately, the Executive Board of CGF has decided to exclude shooting from Birmingham CWG. It seems the decision to exclude shooting is based on the premise that shooting had never been a compulsory sport and there is no venue available for holding shooting events.” Even though the sport has found a place at all CWGs since 1974, it’s never been one of the CWG’s core sports.
Rijiju wrote that India could not aggressively lobby for shooting to be included because of an absence of Indians in the various committees. 

“At present, India is not represented in CWG EC and in Functional Committees of CWG. Therefore, it could not put forward its case for  continuing inclusion of shooting.”

Rijiju even mentioned how the organisers’ final decision had resulted in uneasiness among many National Sports Federations (NSFs). “Exclusion of shooting from Birmingham (...) has agitated various NSFs, Commonwealth Games Association of India (CGAI) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA).”

IOA is concerned about the absence of shooting because India are inarguably the best Commonwealth nation in the sport. A haul of seven gold, four silver and five bronze at the 2018 edition in Gold Coast reiterates this point. 

In 2014, India won 17 out of 57 shooting medals. At home in 2010, they won 30 out of 100. Without that haul, there is a possibility that the country will slide down the table and they want to avoid that.

The CGF was open to a compromise as long as shooting was fine with a reduced programme, featuring fewer events, but that wasn’t followed. ISSF, the world governing body, stuck to its original plan by submitting just one proposal with all events which was hugely costly. The ISSF has even pledged to meet some of the costs, a fact mentioned in Rijiju’s letter.

India’s shooting community, led by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), has urged Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to boycott Commonwealth Games if the sport remains outside the programme. IOA is said to be giving that option some serious thought, but a final decision will be taken by the government.

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