6 Countries Withdraw From Shooting World Cup In Delhi Over Coronavirus Fears
Participants from six countries including China, North Korea and Hong Kong will not be taking part in the Shooting World Cup scheduled for March due to domestic travel restrictions due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: February 26, 2020 04:00 pm IST
Highlights
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Six countries have withdrawn from the Shooting World Cup in Delhi
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The World Cup was scheduled to be held from March 15 to March 26
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The six countries have travel restrictions due to coronavirus fears
The novel coronavirus outbreak has prompted six countries, including the deadly disease's epicentre China, to withdraw from next month's shooting World Cup here, the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI) revealed on Wednesday. The ISSF World Cup is slated to be held from March 15 to 26 at the Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi. "There were some countries which were coming but because of the Coronavirus outbreak, their national policies dictate that they can't come," NRAI President Raninder Singh told reporters.
"China have taken a wise decision on their own as a nation. They don't want to infect others and hence won't travel. Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, North Korea and Turkmenistan have also backed out because of national policies," he added, referring to the domestic travel restrictions imposed by the governments of these countries.
The NRAI chief also informed that Pakistan will also not be competing at the event as the country's shooters are busy familiarising themselves with a new coach.
"Don't connect last time to this time. Pakistan were never coming. They have two athletes who have qualified for pistol events for Olympics," he said referring to the denial of visas to Pakistani shooters in last year's World Cup which led to India's suspension from hosting international events for some time.
"Mr Javed Lodhi (Pakistan shooting federation's vice president) has informed me that 'our coach in Germany is only available during that time and our shooters would much rather train for the Olympic event than participate in the World Cup'," Singh added.