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What's the story?
The Secretary-General of Cycling Federation of India and Asian Cycling Federation had no other option but to request the Swiss Embassy to reverse their decision and issue the necessary VISA for the Indian cyclists to participate in the 2018 UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships which will be held from August 15-19 at Aigle, in Switzerland.
In case you didn't know...
In another incident yesterday, 7 members of the Indian Table Tennis team were stranded at the Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi. The Air India officials informed that the aircraft was full and couldn’t accommodate further. Indian star Manika Batra was one of the 7 who was denied to board the flight, she quickly tweeted about the incident which helped everyone take notice and steps were taken immediately. Hopefully, the cyclists will get similar treatment.
The heart of the matter
Switzerland Embassy has not approved VISA for the six-member Indian squad which was about to participate at the event in the European nation. The reasons for clearing the visas stated by Swiss Embassy are 'justification for purpose and conditions, and intended stay wasn't provided', 'info submitted regarding the same wasn't reliable', 'intention to leave territory of Member States before visa expiry couldn't be ascertained.’
The Indian team of six members comprises of Coach Amar Singh alongside the cyclists Bilal Ahmad Dar, Gurpreet Singh, Manoj Sahu, Naman Kapil and Venkappa Shivappa. Onkar Singh, the CFI secretary general has confirmed that the visas were not confirmed despite all the paperwork is complete.
What's next?
With the matter being flashed on social media, it is likely that the matter will be taken seriously by the people concerned. The more delay in the matter will is definitely not desirable and considering the fact that the Indian cycling team is one of the strongest from Asia, this will be a huge blow to the nation and also the competition.
