NRAI to lodge protest with sports bodies

The NRAI on Monday decided to write a protest letter to various sports bodies after the Indian shooters, competing in the ISSF Shooting World Cup in London, were forced to spend a night at the hotel lobby due to the organising committee’s irresponsible behaviour.

In a shocking incident, the Indian shooters, including London Olympic medal hopefuls Gagan Narang and Ronjan Sodhi, were asked to vacate their rooms by Grange St Paul hotel staff on Sunday after the private agency, hired by the organising committee, goofed-up on their accommodation.

Its senior vice-president Avtar Sethi said the national body is writing a protest letter to the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA).“We will write to the ISSF, IOC and IOA in protest. We will tell them whatever has happened with our shooters. When  foreigners come to India we make sure that their stay is convenient. We expect the same for our shooters too in other countries,” Sethi said.

Sethi blamed the private agency, hired by the accommodation committee of the tournament that is also a test event for the London Games, for the goof-up. “Our booking was till April 28 but then we extended it till the next day for our pistol and rifle shooters. We paid the balance amount to the accommodation committee but the private agency did not inform the hotel authorities about the payment and to extend our stay,” Sethi said.

National coach Sunny Thomas said that the shooters finally found shelter after the Indian embassy booked another hotel. IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra, meanwhile, said: “I have asked for a report (from the federation officials) as to what happened in London. After getting the full report we can react as to who is responsible. We will see whether the Olympic Test event managers were responsible or the company who did the hotel booking were responsible,” Malhotra said.