New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) India’s ace pistol shooter Ankit Tomar was dropped from the Indian contingent for the ongoing ISSF World Championships in Baku a week before the team’s departure due to a “minor altercation with a fellow shooter”. His father gave this information on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Tomar, the country’s premier center fire pistol shooter, came to know about this on August 7 when he noticed that his name was missing from the list of shooters leaving for the city of Baku in Azerbaijan. The World Championships began on August 14 and will continue till September 1.
Tomar had to bear the brunt of a ‘minor scuffle’ during the ISSF World Junior Championships in Changwon, South Korea in July. The shooter, who hails from Sonipat, won the gold medal in the team event in the 50m pistol along with Kamaljit and Sandeep Vishnoi in the junior championship.
When Tomar did not see his name in the list for the prestigious world championship, he approached the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and was told, “You are informed that till the final decision of the Disciplinary Committee of (NRAI) You will not be allowed to participate in any competition until the decision comes.
Tomar urged NRAI to conduct the hearing of the disciplinary committee at the earliest. He had said, “It is a question of my future. I request you to take a decision tomorrow as very little time is left for the departure of the team.
“I want to play in Baku because it is related to my future and I am doing well,” Tomar wrote in an e-mail sent to NRAI secretary Rajeev Bhatia. You can see my score.
The NRAI issued a show-cause notice to the shooter but Tomar’s father Davinder Kumar said that his son has not been called for a hearing yet, leaving him upset and worried about his future in shooting.
“It was a minor act of indiscipline which cost my son dearly and he was dropped from the World Championship team,” Davinder said. He is the country’s number one shooter in center fire pistol and could have won the gold medal if he had gone. In Baku we won only bronze medal in this event.
“The coach accompanying the junior team has also quit as he was trying to convince NRAI that it was a minor incident. He is still a kid and can make mistakes. But for this he was severely punished. ,
The concerned coach, however, refuted it saying, “My name not being in the list of coach of the Indian team that went to Baku does not mean that NRAI will not engage my services in future.”
NRAI general secretary Sultan Singh confirmed Tomar’s removal from the Baku-bound squad, saying, “Discipline is very important to make it to the Indian team.” In one incident, he is running around in the hotel with a gun and the video has been recorded in the hotel. The hotel staff panicked seeing the gunmen around.
Tomar had also clarified by mentioning these incidents in his apology letter to NRAI that these were minor incidents.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a syndicated news feed, likely not the latest staff changes or edits)
indian shooter ruled out of world championships due to minor scuffler
