The Commonwealth Games Federation has approved a proposal for the archery and shooting competitions of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to be held in the Indian city of Chandigarh, six months before Birmingham hosts the rest of the event.
The set-up will involve Chandigarh staging the competitions in January 2022, ahead of the main Commonwealth Games in July.
The move follows protests from Commonwealth Games India, a body within the Indian Olympic Association, which was left frustrated when Birmingham elected not to include archery or shooting on the programme for 2022. After that was announced, the CGI threatened to boycott the Games entirely, though it withdrew that threat late last year.
The CGI instead came up with the proposal to host the competitions away from Birmingham, and was supported in discussions by the Indian government, the National Rifle Association of India, the International Shooting Sport Federation and World Archery. It will be the first Commonwealth Games action to take place on Indian soil since Delhi hosted the event in 2010.
India has historically had success in shooting events, winning 16 medals including seven gold in the discipline at the 2018 Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
The CGF said that the two events will be separately organised and funded, with a complete medals table, taking into account the Chandigarh results, to be issued a week after the closing ceremony in Birmingham, “as a further and final legitimate ranking of competing nations and territories from the respective competitions”.
Ian Reid, the Birmingham 2022 chief executive, said that the decision was in keeping with the “long tradition of Commonwealth championships being held across the globe, featuring several different sports”.
CGF president Dame Louise Martin added: “I am delighted that we have approved India’s ambitious proposal to host a Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships in Chandigarh during 2022. Commonwealth archery and Shooting athletes now have an unprecedented opportunity to compete in an elite event that will showcase the very best of Commonwealth Sport and add value to the Commonwealth Sports Movement.”
