The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) on Thursday announced that a decision has been taken to schedule a National Camp for 34 Olympic core group of shooters from August 1.
The decision was taken following a meeting of the Governing Body of the NRAI and the camp will be orgsed at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) in New Delhi.
NRAI would ensure all necessary coordination and support in this regard to ensure a smooth resumption of National Shooting activities, in keeping with all the Government of India (GoI) and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) guidelines in place.
Earlier, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) had announced to reopen DKSSR and make it available for training for the core group from July 8 following which a few locally-based members of the group have been availing the training and practice facilities.
NRAI president Rnder Singh expressed confidence in being "fully prepared" to resume a cautious and phased recommencement of National Shooting activities from next month.
"While the DKSSR was made available a week back, given the varying situations across the country and the recent unfortunate spurt in Covid-19 cases in New Delhi, required that the utmost and most meticulous planning needs to be placed above all in the very strictest and most sterile conditions that we must now (in conjunction with SAI and the Administrator of DKSSR) assure. The health and safety of the players and coaches being paramount, we cannot afford any loose ends. NRAI can today say that it is fully prepared to resume a cautious and phased recommencement of National Shooting activities from next month," Singh said in a statement.
Meanwhile, it was also decided that the Manav Rachna University campus, which is an International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) training academy and located close to the DKSSR in Faridabad or a Government approved accommodation, would house the core group, coaches and its support staff. NRAI would also arrange transport to and from the venue.
High-Performance Manager and former India Shooter Ronak Pandit, was also appointed the Nodal Officer in charge of overall coordination for hygiene and medical protocols of the camp on behalf of NRAI. He would be the vital link between athletes, coaches, support staff, the final accommodation authorities and SAI's approved medical staff.
The President, NRAI, further stated that all campers (athletes, officials, coaches and support staff) shall be segregated and kept under the strictest of quarantine-type conditions and shall initially be required to submit a valid and recent COVID-19 Test result from their home locations and only then shall they be permitted to join the camp, that is exclusively being conducted for the elite Olympic Core Group Athletes and shall be a combined camp.
Attendance shall be compulsory for this camp. The NRAI Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) manual shall be made public through its website a week prior to the start of the camp and all eligible campers must necessarily comply with it.
The NRAI is also working on a plan as Step 2 to start segregated camps for its core group of Athletes, both in the senior and junior categories, by isolating athletes for all three disciplines, separately in separate camps.
( With inputs from ANI )