National shooting meet postponed due to rising Corona cases

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) on Friday announced that it has postponed next month's National Championships. This is a result of a sudden spike in coronavirus cases that has disrupted sporting activities that had resumed in January in a phased manner across the country.

According to an NRAI statement, the 64th National Shooting Championship Competitions in rifle, pistol and shotgun events to be held next month have been postponed. "In view of the rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 positive cases all over India, the NRAI president has decided that the nationals be postponed," said the statement.

The venue for the rifle competition was Bhopal while the pistol and shotgun competition were to be held at New Delhi's Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges. The national competition will now be held after the Tokyo Olympics, to be held from July 23 to August 8. "A considered decision will be taken after the Tokyo Olympics, depending on the prevailing Covid-19 conditions at that point of time," the NRAI said.

The NRAI in its circular in January had asked all the state units to conduct competition before February. The zonal competitions are in progress at different venues across the country.

The North Zone competition is being held in Jaipur, under the aegis of the Rajasthan Rifle Association. The organisers of the North Zone competition have made it mandatory for all competitors to have bring a negative report of the Covid-19 RT-PCR test to be eligible to compete in the zonal competition that started Wednesday, and will conclude on Thursday.

This month, the Indian Weightlifting Federation postponed the national competition scheduled to be held in Tamil Nadu due to the rise in pandemic cases in the state.

---IANS

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