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World record holder overlooked for C’wealth Championships

The National Rifle Association of India refused to include Suma Shirur from the list of India’s 37-member squad for shooting’s Commonwealth Championships in New Delhi from February 17.

Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The National Rifle Association of India refused to include Suma Shirur from the list of India’s 37-member squad for shooting’s Commonwealth Championships in New Delhi from February 17. Shirur, who is a world record holder in the 10m air rifle and also the only Indian woman to make it to the final round of an Olympic Games — in Athens, 2004, was omitted owing to complicated formula adopted by the NRAI that takes into account the preliminary and final round scores saw her fourth overall on the domestic circuit. She was also the only Indian in her category at world shooting’s most prestigious annual extravaganza last October, the World Cup Finals, But apparently that doesn’t rate very high on NRAI’s scale of prominent event as her World Cup Finals scores were not a part of the selection criteria. However, the scores from the Asian Air Gun Championships in Doha, considered much below World Cup standard, were included. Shirur went to the World Cup Finals in Wuxi (China) in the middle of the domestic qualification trials in Pune. She topped the initial rounds at Pune, took silver in the nationals, and was even India’s best performer at Doha, but all this, was deemed as not enough! NRAI on their part defended their decision, saying that they had already ‘stated that they would take into account only the Nationals, domestic trials and the Doha event, so her World Cup mark was of no consequence, or the fact that she is a world record holder!’