New Delhi: The suspension of 22 shooters, including Olympic quota winner Yashaswini Singh Deswal, from the national championships for disciplinary reasons will come up for review after the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president, Raninder Singh said that he would persuade general body of the NRAI, scheduled to meet on March 5, to stay the decision of suspension.
Yashaswini, the Olympic quota winner in women’s 10m air pistol, was among the list of banned shooters. She is competing in the national selection trails starting on Tuesday here at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges.
“It has always been our endeavour to act in the best interests of our sport and our shooters. As such, no one is as pained as us when at times severe action is needed to be taken on anyone belonging to the shooting fraternity, most of all, on our shooters. I received several requests from the parents and the affected shooters themselves on the recent decision taken by the governing body. As such I have decided to refer the decision to the general body, scheduled to meet early next month, and persuade them to not implement the said decision. However, this will certainly be a one-off, and any such disciplinary breach, will not be tolerated in the future,” said the NRAI president in a statement.
In the meeting of the NRAI’s governing body held last Friday, a decision was taken to ban shooters who had participated in unauthorised online shooting competitions during pandemic.
“The governing body had taken a decision to ban shooters from the next national championships,” said DVS Rao, secretary general of NRAI, in a text message.
The banned shooters included International para shooter Sriharsha R. Devaraddi, Keshav Sharma, Vikram Singh Bhati, Imroz Ahmed, Pratyush Aman Barik, Tarun Kumar Dahiya, Meenal Yadav, Tejpreet Kaur Oberoi, Dilpreet Singh, Rajeev Ranjan, Visnu Shivraj Pandian, Krishan Kumar, Jyothi H Sannakki and Ishank Ahuja.
“The decision was too harsh and that too before the national selection trials starting Tuesday. It would put additional pressure on the shooter participating in the trials,” said a national level coach.
