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With the Sports Authority of India (SAI) failing to procure arms in time, the Indian shooters are now staring at the possibility of borrowing the equipment from foreign participants at the 11-day Commonwealth Full Bore Championships, getting underway at the Khadarpur Range near Gurgaon from April 15.
It's learnt that SAI had invited tenders for four full bore rifles, with April 3 being the deadline. But delay in processing the bids meant the Australian manufacturer, which had sent an invoice to SAI, had sold the rifles elsewhere. The crisis deepened as the firm said its unit no longer manufactured the same rifle.
India contingent has weapons for 300 yards (big bore), but not for the full bore event (500 yards to 1000 yards). The National Rifles Association of India, it is learnt, has requested the sports manager Graeme Hudson, a paid international staff and president of the Commonwealth Shooting Federation, to arrange the weapons from overseas competitors in the fray. The incident has forced SAI to restart the process. SAI is learnt to have got the approval of procuring four weapons costing around Rs 17 lakh and 20,000 rounds of ammo worth Rs10 lakh from the international sports division, a branch of the Sports Ministry.
A top NRAI official, TS Dhillon, admitted that the delay had put the association in a tight spot. "Since rifles for full bore competition haven't arrived, Indian shooters will now have to borrow to compete," said Dhillon, adding that the equipment, however, would be available for the Commonwealth Games in October. "By that time, we'll sort out the problem," he said. For the above competition as many as 30 shooters have confirmed their participation. The four-member Indian team that had been training at Mhow, arrived at the venue on Monday.
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