Commonwealth Games 2026: National Rifle Association chief unhappy with omission of shooting from Games

Shooting is not a part of the initial list of sporting disciplines at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the move has not gone down well with Indian shooters and administrators alike.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is not happy with the sport not being on the initial list of sporting disciplines.

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Victoria, Australia.

The Secretary-General of NRAI, Kunwar Sultan Singh, feels that the non-performance of other Commonwealth countries has led to the move of the sport being excluded.

"We cannot understand the idea of this entire process of Commonwealth Games authority because ever since these games started the sport has been one of the most important sports," he told ANI.

He added:

"Their non-performance has not gone down well with CWG authorities. Indians and Asians have always been the winners and have been on the medal tally. The Commonwealth countries were somehow unable to beat it. So, they have forcefully pushed it out of the list."

Australia hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006 in Melbourne as well as in 2018 at Gold Coast and in both the events they had shooting as a sporting discipline.

"If you can see then from 1800 to 2018 the sport has been its part and it was in the top priority event. At London Olympics 2012 there were ranges but later on they dropped it citing logistics support problems and lack of ranges and that is why they dropped," Kunwar Sultan Singh said.

Rich haul of medals for India in shooting at Commonwealth Games

India bagged 16 medals in shooting, including seven gold, four silver and five bronze medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. In wrestling, India won 12 medals, which included five golds, three silvers and four bronze medals.

The second team on the list was Australia being far behind, with only nine medals with three golds, five silvers and one bronze medal.

"We approached IOA as well as the government that we will do Commonwealth shooting in India but they said that they will not add the medals in CWG tally then all these things had no logic to it. We had to drop it."

He added:

"We were hoping that in the next edition shooting will be included again but now in Melbourne what they have declared is the mandatory list and now they have put three disciplines in the optional category in which there is shooting, wrestling and archery and in all the three sports India is very dominant. We are requesting the government to somehow get it back in order to give our shooters a level playing opportunity," Singh explained.

With three sports missing at the Commonwealth Games 2026, India's medals tally might take a huge hit in the competition.