The National Rifle Association of India has expressed its commitment to host a separate Commonwealth Shooting Championships in 2022 and endorsed the Indian Olympic Association’s idea of adding medals won in that event to the Birmingham Games tally.
NRAI president Raninder Singh was part of a recent meeting, held in Munich on December 5, between the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). The meeting had discussed ways to make up for the sport’s exclusion from the roster of the 2022 Birmingham Games.
Having got an encouraging response to its proposal to host a separate shooting event just before the 2022 CWG, Raninder wrote to IOA president Narinder Batra, assuring its full commitment to hosting the tournament and seeking the apex body’s cooperation in helping it submit a “formal proposal” to the CGF.
“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,” Raninder said in the letter.
Brief outline
Making a brief outline of the proposal, he wrote, “...this offer is made to the CGF... that upon completion of its regulatory and administrative review process, the competent authority of CGF accords its approval & acceptance to medals awarded at this proposed event being accorded equal protocol as any medals won by a competing nation at the main event conducted later in the Birmingham CWG.
“In essence, these medals would be treated in nature as an opening balance for each competing nation to build upon by competing in those other events in Birmingham. Thus affording nations the capability to maximise their medal potential at the CWG, an issue central & so established by the IOA to the CGF,” he added.
The NRAI chief said the organising committee of the Birmingham CWG will be, in no way, involved in financing the shooting tournament in India, even though by implication (of medals won there are proposed to be added to the final tally) may be considered a part or extension of the 2022 CWG.
