Rathore skips trials,dropped

The reigning Commonwealth double trap champion,Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore,is out of the 2010 Games and as well the Asian Games.

The reigning Commonwealth double trap champion,Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore,is out of the 2010 Games and as well the Asian Games that is scheduled to be held in Guangzhou in November and all this without firing a single shot. Rathore made himself ineligible for these events by failing to show up for the double trap trials at the Karni Singh shooting ranges on Tuesday.

Crux of the matter is his differences with the National Rifle Association of India NRAI,over the new selection policy that was formulated in March this year. Rathore wanted the base scores from the Patiala nationals,held in June,to be considered while the NRAI is taking aggregate scores attained by shooters since the Delhi trials held in February.

Talking to The Indian Express,an emotional Rathore said that skipping the trials was his toughest decision. I took this decision not to participate late last night. And let me tell you it was not an easy call to make. I knew that the next few days would be a harrowing time for me, the Athens Olympics silver medallist said.

In June this year,Rathore had approached the NRAI about changing the selection parameters.

He wanted us to take the base scores from Patiala nationals and not the February trials. This would have been unfair on other shooters. We cant change things in the middle of the year. Well release the squad tomorrow,and he is not going to be there on the list, said NRAIs governing body member Baljeet Singh Sethi.

But Rathore makes another point. When they changed the policy for the rifle and pistol shooters,why didnt they do the same for shotgun.

I wrote my objections over the policy a day before the Patiala trials in March when the NRAIs new policy was formulated. When we make our reservations public it is only an act of desperation, the 40-year-old added.

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Rathore also rubbished NRAI claims that he had a shot at making the team. Rathores average,drawn from a succession of trials since February was 130. And a good score would have upped his aggregate to 136.5,ensuring him a second spot behind,Ronjon Singh Sodhi,who has an aggregate of 140.

Even if I had shot a 147,which is very good score,I wouldnt have made the team, he said.

In his latest post on his blog chillirathore.blogspot.com,he wrote: The policy was implemented in Mar 2010 but scores were retrospectively taken from previous months like February 20108230;giving rise to prejudice and bias.

The policy laid down some grace marks for Olympic/WSC medallist but decided that 2004 Olympics being in distant past did not warrant grace marks as if the experience is limited by 4-year life cycle of each Olympics.