The Commonwealth Games chief Louise Martin has reiterated the decision to exclude shooting from the 2022 edition, despite a threat by India to boycott the event.
While talking to Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, the CWG Federation president said that the decision to exclude shooting from the 2022 CWG to be held in Birmingham was down to the question of logistics. It hasn’t been excluded since the 1974 games.
Shooting has always been a sport that has yielded rich dividends for India in the form of medals, and it was evident from after Indian shooters accounted for 16 of the 66 medals that India won in the last year’s Gold Coast Games. It included seven gold.
NRFI
“A sport has to earn the right to be in the Games,” Martin told the Daily Telegraph. “Shooting has never been a compulsory sport. We have to work through it but shooting will not be in the Games. We have no space anymore.”
Last month India Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra had written to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju suggesting that India should boycott the 2022 Birmingham games after shooting was snubbed from the roster.
After CWG chief’s Martin’s comments, there has been no word from the IOA yet.