Shooting coach out of core group

DK Shukla, one of the jury members in the Commonwealth Shooting Championships recently, who was involved in an incident that could have endangered the lives of marksmen at the Karni Singh Ranges during the competition, has been removed from the ‘core’ group.

DK Shukla, one of the jury members in the Commonwealth Shooting Championships recently, who was involved in an incident that could have endangered the lives of marksmen at the Karni Singh Ranges during the competition, has been removed from the ‘core’ group.

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Confirming this, the Sports Ministry’s joint secretary, Pravir Krishn, said Shukla will “no more be part of the core group of coaches involved in training marksmen for the Commonwealth Games (in October this year)”.

“The decision was taken on Tuesday. He didn’t really fit into the role of a coach,” said Krishn. Shukla, who is also an honorary secretary of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), had asked an Indian shooter to fire at a wooden wall in front of the targets in the 25m range without taking permission of the authorities.

The Commonwealth Shooting Federation (CSF) chief, Graeme Hudson, took a serious view of the incident and issued a letter to the NRAI saying that if Shukla committed a similar “unapproved incident”, it would “result in his removal from the jury for the Championship and also from the Commonwealth Games (CWG)”.

Krishn said there were no plans to fill Shukla’s slot. “We have already started pruning the list of core group coaches and athletes for the CWG in all sports disciplines. The number of core group athletes has already been reduced by 40-45 per cent.