Commonwealth countries forcefully pushed shooting & wrestling out of CWG 2026 list: NRAI

The Secretary-General of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) Kunwar Sultan Singh made many notable revelations about the exclusion of shooting and wrestling from the Commonwealth Games 2026. During a conversation with ANI, Sultan Singh said that he feels that the other Commonwealth countries, which do not perform as well as India in the events, forcefully pushed the events out of CWG 2026. The development about NRAI being unhappy with the move comes days after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) termed the exclusions of shooting, wrestling, and archery from the CWG 2026 list as an injustice. 

Speaking to ANI, Kunwar Sultan Singh said that NRAI cannot understand the idea of Commonwealth Games authority as shooting has been one of the most important sports, ever since the games started. “Their non-performance has not gone down well with CWG authorities. Indians and Asians have always been the winners and have been on the medal tally. The Commonwealth countries were somehow not able to beat it. So, they have forcefully pushed it out of the list,” he added. 

Singh further elaborated on the importance of the sport by saying that between 1800 to 2018, shooting was a top priority event and it was dropped from the London Olympics 2012 due to logistics support problems and lack of shooting ranges. The NRAI secretary-general also added that they have requested the government to somehow get the event back in order to give the shooters suitable playing opportunities.

"Hoping that in the next edition shooting will be included," says Kunwar Sultan Singh

“We approached IOA as well as the government that we will do Commonwealth shooting in India but they said that they will not add the medals in CWG tally then all these things had no logic to it. So we had to drop it. We were hoping that in the next edition shooting will be included again but now in Melbourne what they have declared is the mandatory list and now they have put three disciplines in the optional category in which there is shooting, wrestling, and archery, and in all the three sports India is very dominant,” he elaborated.