The Delhi High Court has directed the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) to include veteran Paralympian Naresh Sharma for the World Shooting Para Sport Championship to be held in Cheongju, Korea from 1st to 12th May 2018.
The court’s direction came while hearing a petition filed by Naresh after he was not included in the 15-member squad for the recently held World Shooting Para Sport World Cup in Al Ain, UAE which was also a Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) competition for the World Shooting Para Sport Championship.
The World Shooting Para Sport Championship is very important since it offers quota places for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
The court had earlier directed PCI to conduct selection trials for Naresh, who had questioned the selection policy and the entire process of selection by the PCI.
The order also stated that incase Naresh’s scores meet the selection criteria, steps will be taken to sent his name for participation at the World Shooting Para Sport Championship.
As per the Court order, the trials were conducted by PCI in the presence of representatives of Sports Authority of India (SAI) and National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and the results were placed before the court.
The Arjuna Awardee, who has represented India at five Paralympic Games, shot a score of 1113 in the Men’s 50m Rifle Three Positions (R7) which is 3 points more than the MQS required for the World Championship and Paralympics.
The court compared the petitioner’s score with the participants sent to UAE for the World Shooting Para Sport World Cup, to come to a conclusion whether he could be sent to Korea.
It found that 44-year-old Naresh had scored better than the participants in some events if not all and directed the PCI to comply with the directions and file the nominations for the petitioner.
