CWG 2022 | Indian Olympic Association mulls boycott after non inclusion of shooting in Commonwealth Games 2022

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is mulling the boycott of the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham, United Kingdom after shooting was taken down from the list of sports in the event. IOA has sought the government's approval to boycott of the event and a letter was addressed to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju seeking the nod on the same, penned by IOA President Narendra Batra. 

Boycott on the cards?

Batra addressed a letter to Rijiju and has asked him to convene an early meeting to deliberate on the proposal to boycott the 2022 CWG event. 

Batra lashed out at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CFG) leadership for 'changing the rules' whenever India did well in the event and for having an 'India bashing mindset'. He reportedly has said that India was no longer a colony of any country and therefore it does not need to heed to any other power. 

India has done extremely well in shooting and accounts for a large number of medals earned by athletes for the nation and scraping away of the sport could lead to a loss for the Indian participants.      

Here's the letter penned by Batra:

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Shooting a strong side for India

India has 26 medals from the Olympics so far and four of those come from the sport of shooting, including Abhinav Bindra's gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics Beijing. Indian shooters who have excelled at the world stage include Abhinav Bindra, Jitu Rai, Member of Parliament (MP) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Apurvi Chandela, Ronjan Sodhi, Anjali Bhagwat, Heena Sidhu, Shreyasi Singh, Manu Bhaker, Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat, Saurabh Chaudhary.

The Indian shooting contingent for the 2012 London was one of the largest to date. There were a total of 11 shooters including 4 female shooters. India's first medal in the 2012 Olympics was when Gagan Narang won the bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event. The second medal came from the unheralded army man Vijay Kumar when he won the silver in the 25m rapid fire pistol event after finishing 4th in the qualification rounds. 

In the Commonwealth games alone, India has 63 medals from shooting, amounting to more than 50% of India's medals at different editions of the event. 

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