Archery
Indian archery team denied visas to compete at World Cup in Switzerland
The Indian recurve archery team has been denied visas by the Swiss Embassy to compete at the second stage of the Archery world cup.
Indian archery team (Source: World Archery)
The Indian recurve archery team has been denied visas by the Swiss Embassy to compete at the second stage of the Archery world cup. This decision that was made by the State Secretariat for Migration in Switzerland put a travel ban towards the end of April on all flights from India barring those of Swiss citizens. The Lausanne edition of the Archery World Cup was to take place between May 17- May 23.
Amongst the recurve archers, Deepika Kumari has secured an individual place at the Tokyo Olympic Games already. However, the Indian women's recurve team has not secured an Olympic quota place as yet. The edition at Lausanne would serve as a crucial stage of practice prior to Stage 3 of the World Cup that is to be held in Paris between June 21-27.
The men's recurve team comprising Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai, and Atanu Das has already qualified for the team event and individual category at the Olympic Games. They did this by winning a silver medal at the Archery World Championships in the Netherlands back in 2019.
The Secretary of the Archery Association told TOI that " They are not issuing Schengen Visa Type C. They are also not processing short term visas. We requested their embassy office in Delhi for 6-8 days of short visa to Lausanne but we received a communication from them refusing the same due to serious Covid 19 conditions here." He also mentioned the problem with quarantining in Lausanne for 10 days with no training and multiple restrictions in place that would be a big problem for the archers.
The focus now is on ensuring that the team is able to take part in the third stage of the Archery World Cup which is Olympics Qualifier without any hindrance in the travel restrictions and administrative matters.
