The Doha Asian Games Organising Committee on Tuesday asked Indian Olympic Association to tender an immediate and unconditional apology on behalf of shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore for his "unwarranted and out-of-context allegations" against its volunteers.
In an official letter sent to the IOA by Abdulla Khalid Al Qahtani, Director General, DAGOC, the Games organisers have also made it clear that they reserved the right to take legal action, if required.
DAGOC's threat follows comments attributed to Rathore during a training session at the Lusail Olympic Shooting Range where he accused volunteers of being "rude and unhelpful".
DAGOC claimed to the contrary in the letter made available to the press.
"Mr Rathore was not denied access; rather he wanted to train against the rules. He went to the Lusail Shooting Complex for an unscheduled training session, despite an Olympic Council of Asia rule that allows shooters to practice based on their scheduled slots to provide fair opportunity to all competing athletes," the letter said.
"His offensive behaviour, and the rude comments against volunteers and officials which followed, are very unsportsmanlike and totally not acceptable. The claims about our volunteers and paid staff are serious accusations and DAGOC reserves its right to take legal action to protect its 17,000 volunteers' rights who are working free of charge."
{{/usCountry}}"His offensive behaviour, and the rude comments against volunteers and officials which followed, are very unsportsmanlike and totally not acceptable. The claims about our volunteers and paid staff are serious accusations and DAGOC reserves its right to take legal action to protect its 17,000 volunteers' rights who are working free of charge."
{{/usCountry}}Rathore, an Olympics silver medallist, on Tuesday won an individual bronze after guiding India to a team silver.