Commonwealth Games Federation president, Dame Louise Martin, says she is determined to have shooting involved in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
She was due to attend an ISSF meeting on 7 December and was “committed to working together to find a solution.”
Her unexpected enthusiasm for shooting followed a visit to India, which has threatened to boycott the games after shooting was excluded from the Birmingham 2020 programme. Dame Louise met Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Batra and the country’s sports minister Kiren Rijiju.
“The president made very clear his concerns around shooting not being on the programme for Birmingham 2022,” Dame Louise writes in a blog on insidethegames.biz. “Given that shooting is one of the most popular sports in India and their shooters are some of the best in the world, they wanted them to compete.”
She continues: “We understood his concerns. These were later echoed by the sports minister, who told us that while he recognised shooting was an optional sport, it is the sport that they would love to have been part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.”
Dame Louise says the CGF took these concerns very seriously. “We were asked repeatedly about a potential Commonwealth Shooting Championships. At present, we are working hard behind the scenes to find innovative and creative solutions to benefit all partners.”
She adds: “Dialogue will continue behind the scenes and I hope to attend the ISSF General Assembly in December to discuss other options.
And she concluded: “I am sure we will end up with a positive outcome.
“There is still a long way to go to reach a solution. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
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