NRAI bans Tokyo 2020 quota winner Yashaswini Deswal from participating at national championships


NRAI bans Tokyo 2020 quota winner Yashaswini Deswal from participating at national championships

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) banned the Tokyo Olympic Games hopeful and quota winner Yashaswini Deswal from participation at national championships. Along with her, 21 other shooters were also banned. The reason given for the sanction was that the shooters took part in a shooting league which was held online without proper authorization during the COVID-19 lockdown last year.

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The shooting league was organized by Shimon Sharif who himself is a shooter who started his career in 1995 and went on to participate in a plethora of international shooting competitions with his most notable being at the ISSF World Cup which took place in Korea in 2003. He is is also the founder of Topgun Shooting Academy, a shooting range in New Delhi.

Ban for Yashaswini Deswal to be applied next year

Yashaswini Deswal

The secretary of NRAI, Rajiv Bhatia spoke to The Times of India about the ban and said, “For Yashaswini, the ban will be applied next year, as she will be preparing for the Tokyo Games this year. For the other shooters, the ban will be in effect from this year. The ban was finalised at NRAI’s Annual General Body meeting on Friday.”

Bhatia further explained that the problem with taking part in the shooting league was that the NRAI had clearly issued a notice stating that the competition was not an authorized one. It had further explained clearly that if any Indian shooter takes part in the same, strict disciplinary action would be taken. Due to the same, rising star Deswal and 21 others have been slapped with bans from the national championships.

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