2022 Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships

The 2022 Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships, commonly known as Chandigarh 2022, is a sporting event for members of the Commonwealth that is scheduled to be held in Chandigarh, India.[1] Events will be held in and archery and shooting.

2022 Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships
Host cityChandigarh, India
Nations participatingup to 72 Commonwealth nations (expected)
Athletes participatingTBA
EventsTBA in 2 sports
Opening ceremonyJanuary 2022

The Championships are expected to take place in January 2022. The Championships were conceived by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and World Archery Federation (WA) following the exclusion of both sports from the programme of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. Approved and recognised by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the event will be separate from the main Games, but medals won in Chandigarh will be counted with medals won in Birmingham in an official medal table published a week after the completion of the Games.

Background
Main article: 2022 Commonwealth Games

Exclusion of shooting
National Shooting Centre in Bisley, Surrey was rejected by the Birmingham organising committee to host shooting

In January 2018, CEO of the CGF, David Grevemberg confirmed that Shooting, which is an optional sport according to the CGF constitution, would not feature at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as the organising committee of the Games decided to exclude the sport.[2] This sparked an anger among the athletes from India and the IOA as India performed well in shooting during the previous edition of the Games at Gold Coast in 2018 by winning 16 medals, including 7 golds. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh was unhappy with the decision of removal of shooting and wanted the Indian government to boycott the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile, the IOA requested the CGF and the Organising Committee of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to include Shooting in the event. On 20 June 2019, during the CGF board meeting in Birmingham, the CGF confirmed that the shooting sport has been excluded from the 2022 Commonwealth Games as no suitable venue has been found in the host city Birmingham and in the West Midlands region.[3] On 27 July 2019, IOA president Narinder Batra wrote a letter to the Indian Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju to discuss about the boycott of the 2022 Games as the organising committee did not add shooting in the Games. In regarding to protest, Batra said that the IOA has pulled out from the CGF General Assembly which was held in Kigali, Rwanda in September 2019 and also the IOA had withdrawn the nomination of its secretary general Rajeev Mehta for the election of a regional vice-president as well as that of Namdev Shiragaonkar for sports committee member in CGF. Batra also commented that the CGF has an "India bashing mindset" and "try to change rules" whenever the country (India) does well in the Commonwealth Games.[4]

On 30 July 2019, Ian Reid, CEO of Birmingham 2022 published a statement in the Games official website stating that shooting was not included in Birmingham's bid and in September 2018, five sports that were not included in the original bid – shooting, archery, beach volleyball, para table tennis and cricket – expressed their desire to be part of the Games. He also stated that the Birmingham 2022 Board committed to conducting a review, offering each sport a chance to be included and the process they conducted was fair, logical and transparent and the assessment panel included senior representatives from key Games Partners including Birmingham 2022, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport; Commonwealth Games England and Birmingham City Council. Shooting scored highly on some of the key criteria and the Panel recognised the submission from the ISSF, the International Confederation of Fullbore Rifle Associations (ICFRA) and British Shooting (BS). But the Panel determined that the proposed location for shooting at National Shooting Centre in Bisley, Surrey which is 130 miles away from the Games host city Birmingham, offered very little benefit to the West Midlands, in a Games with a significant proportion of funding coming from the region. The Panel did offer the opportunity for the sport to submit an alternative Birmingham based proposal – most likely two disciplines in one Birmingham venue – but the ISSF, ICFRA and BS were not ready to submit a proposal that did not include all four disciplines in a single Bisley-based venue. As a result of that review, Birmingham 2022 proposed adding three sports – women's cricket, para table tennis and beach volleyball – all of which could be staged in venues in Birmingham or the West Midlands and could bring additional benefits to a region that is providing substantial funding for the Games.[5][6][7]

Proposal for inclusion

On 14 November 2019, President of the CGF Dame Louise Martin and Chief Executive of the CGF David Grevemberg met with Narinder Batra, Kiren Rijiju and other IOA officials in Delhi to discuss about the exclusion of shooting sport and to find a solution about it.[8][9] After the discussion, Louise Martin revealed that the CGF team will attend the ISSF Extraordinary General Assembly in Munich, Germany in December 2019 to discuss how the sport can be involved in the 2022 Games.[10] Narinder Batra revealed they will wait for the meeting between the CGF and the ISSF before taking any decision on whether to boycott the 2022 Games in Birmingham.[11] Later, the NRAI expressed its commitment to hosting a shooting competition in India before Birmingham 2022 and endorsed the idea of the IOA to allow medals won there to count towards the overall 2022 Commonwealth Games table.[12] On 30 December 2019, the IOA announced in its Annual General Meeting in Delhi that they will participate in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and will also bid for the 2026 or 2030 Commonwealth Games.[13]

Championships host proposal

In January 2020 it was proposed that shooting and archery competitions would take place in India some time before the Birmingham Games but count in the medal table.[14] The ISSF and the World Archery supported the decision.[15][16] It was announced in the CGF's website that they would review the decision of inclusion of shooting and archery with the Games partners by January or February 2020.[17] In an interview with the BBC Sport, British Sports Minister Nigel Adams commented that prospect of India missing the 2022 Commonwealth Games over the absence of shooting was "absolutely bonkers". He also told that he was "delighted" India was appeased through the possibility of hosting its own events four months before the Games begin.[18] On 4 February 2020, the British House of Lords endorsed India's proposal to host the additional shooting and archery events for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[19] On 24 February 2020, the CGF announced that they had accepted India's proposal of hosting the archery and shooting events in India for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but the two sports will be conducted as a separate event called as the Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships, which will be hosted in Chandigarh in January 2022. The CGF also confirmed that the medals won in the championships will be counted in the final medal table of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[20]

References
  1. "Commonwealth Games: Birmingham announced as host of 2022 event". BBC Sport. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  2. "Games-Shooters up in arms over Birmingham 2022 exclusion". Reuters. 19 January 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  3. Das, Ranit (21 June 2019). "Big blow to India as shooting is left out of 2022 Commonwealth Games programme". www.indiatvnews.com. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  4. "IOA seeking government approval for 2022 Commonwealth Games boycott for dropping shooting". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  5. "Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and Shooting". B2022. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  6. Morgan, Tom; Slater, Matt (30 July 2019). "Birmingham 2022 organisers defend decision to omit shooting from Commonwealth Games programme". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  7. "Commonwealth Games 2022: Shooting exclusion defended by organisers". 30 July 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  8. "Joint Statement from CGF President Dame Louise Martin and IOA President Dr Narinder Batra | Commonwealth Games Federation". thecgf.com. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  9. "CGF confident Indian athletes of competing at Birmingham 2022 after Delhi talks". www.insidethegames.biz. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  10. "CGF President to hold talks with ISSF over shooting's future at Birmingham 2022". www.insidethegames.biz. 20 November 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  11. "IOA to wait for CGF's talks with ISSF before deciding on Birmingham 2022 boycott". www.insidethegames.biz. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  12. "NRAI open to hosting Commonwealth shooting medal event before Birmingham 2022". www.insidethegames.biz. 26 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  13. "India drop threat to boycott Birmingham 2022 over exclusion of shooting". www.insidethegames.biz. 30 December 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  14. "Commonwealth Games: Birmingham 2022 shooting & archery events could take place in India". BBC News. 6 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  15. "A decision on Shooting Sports in the Commonwealth Games is imminent". ISSF. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  16. Wells, Chris (7 January 2020). "World Archery lends support to Commonwealth Games India proposal for events alongside Birmingham 2022". World Archery. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  17. "CGF statement on India proposal for Commonwealth Shooting and Archery Events | Commonwealth Games Federation". thecgf.com. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  18. "Adams says prospect of India missing Commonwealth Games was "bonkers"". www.insidethegames.biz. 26 January 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  19. "2022 Commonwealth Games: IOA's proposal to host additional shooting, archery events endorsed by British House of Lords". Firstpost. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  20. Media, P. A. (24 February 2020). "Birmingham 2022 shooting and archery to take place six months early in India". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
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