Referring to the huge number of wild-card entrants at the 60th National Shooting Championship, former Olympic and World Champion Abhinav Bindra tweeted “A championship which should be aspirational has sadly become a joke”.
This has resulted in a record number of entries (over 4,500) received for the championship.
To qualify for the National Shooting Championship a shooters needs to achieve the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS) at either the Zonal Championships or the G.V. Mavlankar All India Shooting Championship. However, the National Rifle Association of India awarded wild-cards to around 600 shooters who have fallen short of the MQS, for the payment of a deposit of Rs. 5,000.
This is the first time NRAI has taken a deposit of Rs. 5,000 (refundable should the shooters achieve the MQS) from the wild-card entrants.
The increased number of entries resulted in details being held till as late as 1 AM.