Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra is not to ecstatic with the decision of dropping shooting from 2022 Commonwealth Games and said that it will be a huge setback for India, especially for its young shooters.
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“No doubt, it will be a huge setback for the country and our shooters. It will hit hard on the up and coming shooters,” Bindra said at the sidelines of a felicitation ceremony of India’s Olympic medallists by the visiting International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach as reported by News 18.
The event was organised by the Indian Olympic Association at a city hotel last night.
“Shooting is an optional sport and they (Birmingham organisers) say they don’t have the facilities to host shooting events. Had Durban (South Africa) hosted the 2022 CWG, shooting would have been there,” he added.
South African city of Durban was to originally host the 2022 CWG but it later expressed its inability to host the Games due to financial dilemma. The Commonwealth Games Federation(CGF) later alloted the 2022 CWG to Birmingham(England).
The Birmingham Organising Committee has decided to exclude shooting from the 2022 Games, indicating administrative issues.
Not to forget, India is the second most successful nation in shooting at CWG, only behind Australia, with a total of 118 medals(56 gold, 40 silver and 22 bronze). Indian shooting contingent won 16 medals at the recently concluded Gold Coast CWG.
Shooting is an optional sport at the CWG, but has been played in every edition since Kingston(Jamaica) 1966, except once in Edinburgh in 1970.
