“This happened in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events who are already in India for their competition,” the IOC had said in a statement at the time, after a decision to this effect was taken at its executive board meeting in Lausanne.
Pakistan had applied for visas for the two shooters — G.M. Bashir and Khalil Ahmed — in the rapid fire category for the New Delhi World Cup, as 16 quota places for the 2020 Olympics were on offer.
Incidentally, the Delhi World Cup was staged from February 20-28, soon after the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2019.
Chand’s personal-best score of 122 out of 150 was shot in 2018 during the Asian Games in Indonesia. His current world ranking is 108 as per the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). He had missed out on the Egypt Shotgun World Cup, held from February 22 to March 5. Despite the Cairo World Cup carrying global ranking points, the Pakistani shooter’s name was missing from the field.
(The Quint is available on Telegram. For handpicked stories every day, subscribe to us on Telegram)