India Pulls Out of Shooting World Cup in Cyprus Due to Coronavirus
India pulled out of next month’s shooting World Cup in Cyprus due to the Coronavirus threat.
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India on Friday pulled out of next month's shooting World Cup in Cyprus, citing the novel coronavirus threat there as the epidemic continued to wreak havoc on sporting calendars across the world.
The shotgun World Cup, recognised by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), is scheduled to be held in Nicosia from March 4 to 13.
"Acting upon the travel advisory by the Ministry of Health dated the 26th of this month, wherein certain nations have been listed for a complete travel ban, the Indian team has been withdrawn from the Cyprus World Cup beginning Mar 4, because we have found that at least one of those nations will be represented there," the National Rifle Association of India said in a statement.
According to the federation, participating in the tournament "would have meant that our team would have come in contact with that team and bearing in mind the advisory and its content, it would further mean that there would be a very high likelihood of our athletes being quarantined upon return to India".
"...Given the next World Cup commences on the 16th and our team was scheduled to travel back to Delhi on 12th, should any of them had been quarantined, they would not have been able to represent the country in New Delhi.
"Keeping the health and welfare of our athletes as a primary concern and in compliance with the ministry of Health travel advisory and finally given the facts as stated above, the NRAI decided to regrettably withdraw its team." The deadly virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has so far killed close to 3000 people and infected nearly 80,000 globally.
Major sporting events across the world are being either postponed or cancelled due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus.
Among the events affected are several football matches, including in Japan and Italy, boxing's Olympic qualifiers, badminton tournaments, and archery events, to name a few.
Europa League matches, among others, are being played behind closed doors, while boxing's Olympic qualifier has been shifted from Wuhan to Jordan.
The outbreak of the deadly disease has also affected the New Delhi shooting world cup, with seven countries already withdrawing.
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Bahrain have opted out due to the coronavirus crisis in these countries.
Earlier this month, the Indian government refused to grant visas to Chinese grapplers for the Asian Wrestling Championship due to the disease which originated from the capital of central China's Hubei province.
In the tournament scheduled in Cyprus, the Indian shooting team included proven performers such as Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Shreyasi Singh, Lakshay Sheoran, Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan.
The shooters were scheduled to leave in two batches on March 2 and 4.
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