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Olympic hero Bindra shot down by system |
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Olympic hero Bindra shot down by system |
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01-16-2010, 06:39 PM
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Olympic hero Bindra shot down by system
 New Delhi: Olympic gold medal winning shooter Abhinav Bindra feels frustrated and has threatened to quit the game because the national body has “hurt” and “misled” him. Bindra, who won India's first individual Olympic gold in the 10m air rifle event in Beijing, has been training abroad for this year's Commonwealth and Asian Games. However, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) wants him home for regular trials. “I am pretty hurt by the way I have been misled (and ) handled. My last several months have been used training in a very professional manner, mainly in Europe. I also demand some professionalism from back home,” Bindra told CNN-IBN’s Digvijay Singh Deo. “I am not asking for much; I am just asking for very basic conditions. There are days when I want to throw away my rifle away. I get upset and it sure has an impact (on my performance). The sport requires peace of mind.” Bindra said the Sports Ministry in July 2009 wrote to him that the NRAI wanted him to be part of selection trials for upcoming competitions. Bindra claimed he returned to the country in November but now his name “doesn’t figure” in the team selected for the Commonwealth Games championship. “They kicked me out of the Commonwealth core group team. After that they didn’t consider me for a sponsorship without a discussion.” “It is just very frustrating and annoying when you have to continuously face situations which are sometimes illogical toward to actual performance.” The shooter’s father, A S Bindra, said his son felt “upset” because the local sports (Punjab) federation has asked him to undergo selection trials. “Abhinav has been writing to them for six months that he be exempted from these local trials but there is no reply coming, so this has really frustrated him,” said A S Bindra. The NRAI defended itself by saying Bindra should have sought the government’s permission if he didn’t want to attend trials. “We have to select the team after the trials. If he wanted not to come for the trials and get selected in the team then he should have told the government. We have already selected the team and it is approved by the government,” said NRAI Secretary Baljit Singn Sethi. The Sports Ministry, in a statement issued on Saturday, said it would not object if Bindra is exempted from trials. “It's for the national sports federations to lay down the selection criteria. If NRAI tells the Ministry tomorrow that it wants to follow a separate approach for the top shooters and exempt Abhinav from trials, we would have no objection. We have received no such request till now,” said Injeti Srinivas, Joint Secretary in the Sports Ministry. 
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