CHENNAI: A Commonwealth Shooting Championships is set to be held in India three months before the 2022 Commonwealth Games. While India wants the medals in this event to be counted in the CWG tally, a decision will be taken later.
It can still be considered a positive development for the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which had threatened to boycott the Games over shooting’s exclusion from Birmingham Games. The meet, subject to ratification of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), will compensate for the lack of shooting.
This development comes hot on the heels of a meeting between the CGF and the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) in Munich earlier this month. “I am pleased to inform you that the ISSF and the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) have expressed interest in hosting a Commonwealth shooting event in India prior to the Games in Birmingham 2022,” CGF president Louis Martin wrote to IOA president Narinder Batra.
If such a meet is to take place, it will begin on March 14, 2022. A proposal to this effect was written by NRAI president, Raninder Singh to Batra. “The NRAI is willing to host a Commonwealth shooting event in India at an appropriate venue commencing on the 14th of March 2022, to coincide with the occasion of Commonwealth Day.” If the meet is greenlit, NRAI will foot the entire bill, another point that Singh mentioned in his letter to Batra.
What happens next? Once the Indian Commonwealth Games Association formally submits the proposal to CGF, it’s likely they will have a decision by the first week of March next year. “We should, in all probability, have a decision of acceptance or rejection of our offer by CGF by the latest in the 1st week of March 2020,” Singh stated.