Shooting | Indian coach Pavel Smirnov furious over Visa verdict, feels it will endanger India
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Indian pistol coach Pavel Smirnov ridiculed officials for rejecting Visa proposals of the Pakistan contingents and exclaimed that the decision might put India in danger over IOC recognition. Foreign participants of the 25m rapid fire event were also disappointed about the unavailability of quotas.
Three Indian participants Anish Bhanwala, Arpit Goel and Adarsh Singh were affected because of IOC’s last minute decision to revoke quotas for Olympic qualification from the event. Indian pistol coach, Pavel Smirnov was upset at the Visa verdict that forced the IOC to revoke the quotas and abandon the discussions regarding future Olympic-related sporting events from being hosted in India.
"It is stupid. Some small official sitting in the office has taken a stupid decision (of not giving visas to Pakistan shooters). It will put India in danger
German rapid pistol shooter, Christian Reitz expressed his disappointment over the ruling but looked at the competition as an important one leading to the future tournaments and also took part in the 10m air pistol event. Reitz was the Gold medallist in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and is holding the world record currently.Â
"It's not good for us. We train a little differently when we know there is no quota available for the event. It is a little disappointing, but it is still a World Cup and we will have good competition here, so still looking forward to it," he said.
2015 Australia Rapid Fire Junior Champion Sergei Evglevski, however, pointed out the expenses that the countries had spent for its players in order to participate in the event and expressed that the removal of
"Financially, it is disappointing for most of the shooters as all the countries spend a lot to send their shooters expecting they will win quota places here. So it will certainly have some impact on the plans of most of us here," said
