SAI, NRAI to jointly take responsibility for national shooting camp

New Delhi, Oct. 13 (IANS): The two-month national camp for core Olympic shooters will begin at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range from Thursday. All Tokyo Olympic quota winners will be a part of the camp which will run till December 17. The camp will comprise of 32 shooters (18 men and 14 women), 8 coaches, 3 foreign coaches and two support staff.

In order to maintain a secure bio-bubble whereby the athletes can train safely and to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, the responsibility of maintaining the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be shared by the Sports Authority of India and the National Rifle Association of India, a SAI media statement read on Tuesday.

Responsibility for maintaining the shooting range lies with the Administrator, Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

Rajiv Bhatia, Secretary, NRAI said, “The safety norms set up through the SOPs issued by SAI are very thorough, this will be the first national camp that will be held since the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March and all steps are in place for the shooters to perform in a safe and comfortable environment.”

The NRAI will make boarding and lodging arrangements at a hotel nearby the venue, for which SAI will provide support as per existing norms. From the hotel to the entry to the shooting range, it will be the responsibility of the NRAI to maintain the SOP in order to keep a secure bio-bubble.

NRAI has formulated the quarantine process wherein shooters/coaches coming from outside the Delhi-NCR will be quarantined at the hotel for the duration of seven days. Shooters/coaches who reside in the Delhi-NCR would require to quarantine/self-isolate at their place of stay for the quarantine period of seven days after which they will join other campers in the hotel for the entire duration of the camp. All the shooters and coaches must undergo a Covid-19 test which will be conducted at the hotel and arranged by the NRAI.

To maintain safety, zoning of premises by nature of risk category to minimise the contact between campers and range personnel has been planned into Green, Orange, Yellow and Red Zones.

India have won a record 15 quotas in shooting for the Tokyo Olympics and can still obtain quotas on the basis of world rankings.