The Indian Shooting contingent of 15 shooters, coaches and support staff for the Olympics will be leaving for Zagreb on May 11. The team will be setting up the base for practice there as the covid situation in India is getting out of hand.
Currently, the contingent has been asked to report to Delhi on Tuesday. They will be spending a week here in the capital observing quarantine. There are also plans to get the shooters and coaches vaccinated during this time. The squad will then be leaving for Zagreb through a chartered flight.
Skeet shooters Angad Vir Bajwa and Mairaj Khan will be training in Italy. Bajwa is already training there and Mairaj is expected to join him. The squad will take part in European Championship in the MQS section, from May 20. After the competition, they will stay back and will be based in Zagreb, Croatia for three months in its final build-up and will fly out from there for the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled on July 23. National Rifle Association of India confirmed the schedule in a statement.
“The team will be directly going to participate in the Tokyo Olympics from there. The Croatian Shooting Federation is making all the arrangements.”
The NRAI has also made arrangements for a chartered flight to minimize the threat of contracting the infection. All these steps are being taken considering the travel restrictions imposed on Indians. The initial plan was to come back to India and train in Delhi, but with the alarming situation in the country, it was felt that shooters should be based abroad.
The players will need to carry a 48 hour negative RT-PCR report and stay in quarantine there for a week in Croatia too. The visas and other things required for travel are being worked out. The NRAI has also allowed private coaches and support staff of the shooters to be part of the squad. The shooters will also get a chance to train with the Croatian team. They have an upgraded range in an Army facility and the same targets that will be used in Tokyo.