Cream of competition for Delhi World Cup

The New Delhi event, coming as it does in the Olympic year, will be significant for those shooters who have qualified for the Sydney Games, to get some vital practice. With a world class fare assured, the Cup offers a great opportunity to brush up their deficiencies in order to keep fighting fit and also assess what to expect at the Sydney Games later this year.

India’s Anwar Sultan, the lone qualifier for the Sydney Games, will be all set to train his guns against some of the world’s best shooters. Kuwait, with 16 shooters in fray, can prove quite a handful for the rest of the competitors, including Italy — who are sending a 15-member contingent — and some of the CIS nations.

In fact, there will be 13 shooters from Kazakhstan besides competitors from Russia (4), Belarus (2) and Azerbaijan. The Kazakh shooters, who are considered quite sharp, can pose enormous problems to the rest.

Quite a few European and African countries, including the Great Britain, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Egypt, Angola and Cyprus have sent in their entries for the New Delhi meet. Shooters start arriving for the championship from Sunday, the Netherlands being the first, with four shooters.

All the participating nations have been given a work-out schedule for their shooters in order to get a feel of the ranges.

In order to make the World Cup a success, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) is leaving nothing to chance. In fact, it has already passed a budget of rougly Rs 38 lakh to spruce up the range, including overhauling of the targets and importing new spares for the equipment that will be in use during the seven-day extravaganza. A new clay-pigeon machine is in place (since November ’99) and, after a long time, since the 1982 Asian Games, the range looks fully-lit.

Some of the Indian shooters, who have been practising at the range, were all praise for the efforts that Rockey Dias, the administrator, has initiated. “After a long time, the range is looking good. In fact, we feel like coming more often here now as the atmosphere has undergone a thorough change,” said a shooter.

In the same breath, he added that short-supply of ammunition was the only impediment as it has hampered their practice.

When contacted, Dias assured he had already placed orders with the authorities at the corporate office (at Nehru Stadium) and “sufficient ammunition will be arriving soon.”

Meanwhile, a delegation from both Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and Afro-Asian Games will be visiting the range on March 5 to assess the feasibility and give the green light as shooting will be one of the seven events for the Afro-Asian Games, which New Delhi will be hosting later this year.

President KR Narayanan will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the World Cup while Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will be present at the closing ceremony. The opening ceremony will, however, be conducted at the Army Parade ground.