Archery National Ranking Tournament: Is AAI facing a monetary issue? The Sports Ministry has been stressing on the importance of all NSFs having a proper grading system in place while preparing their Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC). The Archery Association of India (AAI) was scheduled to restart the National Ranking Archery Tournaments (NRAT) after a gap of a few years at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad from December 12 but AAI have suddenly announced that the competition stands postponed as of now. Follow Live updates on InsideSport.IN
Archers scheduled to participate in the event had already booked their travel tickets and were preparing for the resumption of the competition after a break of a few years. But this news comes as a blow.
Archery National Ranking Tournament suddenly postponed, monetary issues at play? Check details
“We know the news will not please the archers but we needed to postpone the competition because of a few issues. We are confident of restarting the competition after a break of 15-20 days,” AAI secretary Pramod Chandurkar told InsideSport.IN.
The issues cited include COVID-19, travel restrictions and a need to maintain general safety currently.
Archery National Ranking Tournament suddenly postponed, monetary issues at play? Check details
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Sources inside the federation have suggested issues related to budget and other monetary factors might be a major reason for the sudden announcement. An internal meeting is scheduled to be held to finalise the new dates.
AAI’s initial plan was four to hold National Ranking Archery Tournaments (NRATs) for three age groups – Senior, Junior and Sub–Junior (Recurve & Compound – Men & Women) followed by a final.
Top 16 from the Elimination Round of Senior Nationals were eligible to participate. World No 2 Deepika Kumari did not make the cut.
Archery National Ranking Tournament suddenly postponed, monetary issues at play? Check details
India’s top archers like Atanu Das, Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam were all scheduled to take part in the 1st NRAT. The National Ranking Tournaments was first introduced in 2003 but had to be stopped once AAI lost recognition and could not consistently conduct the tournament.
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