Top marksmen for National shooting
NEW DELHI: Almost all the top shooters, including Beijing Olympic Games gold-medallist Abhinav Bindra and London Games silver-medallist Vijay Kumar, will be seen in action at the Senior Nationals, which will commence at the Karni Singh Ranges on Wednesday.
The shooters who have confirmed their participation include Bindra, Gagan Narang, Vijay Kumar, Manavjit Singh, Ronjan Sodhi, RVS Rathore, Joydeep Karmakar, Sanjeev Rajput, Anjali Bhagwat, Suma Shirur, Heena Sidhu and Mampi Das among others.
About 2300 shooters from 41 affiliated state associations and units have confirmed their entries, which is a record. “The number has also been boosted by the fact that, "It is compulsory for all the top marksmen to participate as the scores in the Nationals will have a huge bearing on the selection of teams next year," said Deep Bhatia, the Haryana State Rifle Association secretary-general. OFFICIALS BARRED NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from the international boxing federation, AIBA, which had barred Indian officials from accompanying the team of junior pugilists for an international competition, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has barred IOA officials from participating in OCA events. It has, however, made an exception by allowing Indian athletes to compete in OCA games --such as the 2014 Asian Games in at Incheon (South Korea) — under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) flag. AIFF AND SPORTS CODE The Delhi High Court Tuesday directed the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to follow the sports code of the government of India for its next elections, scheduled for Dec 20 this year. A division bench of Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said elections of AIFF this year must be conducted as per the sports code of the government. The court said if it does not follow code, sports ministry can take action to de-recognise it. IAAF BACKS AFI Following the sports ministry's warning to de-recognise the Athletics Federation of India, the international body, IAAF has come out in support of the Indian federation, saying that it "continues to recognise the current office-bearers of the AFI". The ministry had annulled the AFI elections and had asked the federation to hold fresh polls within 60 days.