Tag : Pistol

New Delhi: India's pistol shooting ace Jaspal Rana wants the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and the country's marksmen to shun shooting products made in England, in a tit-for-tat reaction for excluding the sport from the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games curriculum. Till now, barring the 1970 Edinburgh edition of the Games, shooting always featured in the quadrennial event before the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and the Birmingham organisers decided to drop the 'optional sport'. Rana, winner of four Asian Games gold medals (1994 Hiroshima and 2006 Doha) and the most successful Indian athlete at the Commonwealth Games (15 medals, including nine gold), feels that since the home team "cannot compete" with Indian marksmen, they are trying to "eliminate the sport" from the quadrennial games. Following are excerpts from an IANS interview: Q: Who do you think is responsible for removing shooting from the CWG curriculum? A: To begin with, we ourselves are responsible in a big way (by giving such superb performances in the previous editions of the CWG). Abhinav Bindra, Anjali Vedpathak, Suma Shirur, Mansher Singh and everyone who did well in the Commonwealth Games are responsible! The way we have won medals in CWG in the last two decades, I think the people were not able to take it in a sporting way. So, for them, the best way was to eliminate the sport. That'll get their medals tally somewhere. Q: With England being a country which exports so much shooting equipment and ammunition, do you think there was a real problem for them in organising shooting events in CWG? A: India is one of the biggest buyers of ammunition for shooting from England. What hurts me most is the fact that we issue threats of boycotting the Gam ...