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Reactions from athletes across different sporting disciplines continue to pour in following the exclusion of sports like shooting, wrestling and archery from the 2026 Commonwealth Games (CWG) initial program list, which is scheduled to take place in Victoria, Australia.
After 2018 Gold Coast gold medal-winning wrestler Bajrang Punia and shooter Manu Bhaker, 2021 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya expressed displeasure in the organizers' decision to drop wrestling from the list.
The main reason behind the backlash from the athletes has to be India's consistent performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
At the Commonwealth Games in 2018, the Indian contingent clinched 16 medals in shooting, including seven gold, four silver and five bronze medals. Meanwhile, the wrestlers swept 12 medals, which included five gold, three silver and four bronze medals.
Speaking about India's phenomenal previous performances at CWG, Ravi Dahiya said:
"We have been winning medals in wrestling. We won medals in 2014, and 2018 CWG games and we are preparing really hard for 2022 games in England. It is very disheartening that it has been removed from the Games but our Federation WFI is trying to bring it back."
Dahiya further added:
"We are preparing really well for Commonwealth Games. We have Asian Championship in Mongolia and we are flying after 3-4 days. After that, we have trials for Commonwealth Games and Asian Games."
However, aquatics, athletics, badminton, boxing, beach volleyball, T20 cricket, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, lawn bowling, netball, rugby sevens, squash, table tennis, triathlon and weightlifting are the other sporting disciplines that have been included by the Commonwealth Games organizing committee.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sanjeev Rajput feels exclusion of sports will affect India's medal tally:
Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter Sanjeev Rajput expressed disappointment after the shooting was not included in the initial sports program list for CWG 2026.
In an interview with ANI, Sanjeev said:
"With shooting not being a part of CWG 2026 will affect India's medals tally. This you will see in 2022 as well that how much it will affect India's medals tally and we will see that repeating also in 2026. CWG 2006 and CWG 2018 took place in Australia only."
He further added:
"In sporting disciplines where India does well or improves, these disciplines are slowly removed so that India does not go up in medals tally. When shooting was part of CWG in Australia twice, there is no point of removing it in 2026. Why it is being removed, I cannot understand.
The organizers have said that they will add a few more sporting disciplines later this year, keeping India's archery, shooting and wrestling federations' hopes alive to make it to the list.
