Abhinav Bindra wants to quit

Deepak Jain>Sat, Jan 16 10 10:54 AM

One year and 158 days after he became India's first Olympic individual gold medalist, shooter Abhinav Bindra - "frustrated" by the attitude of India's shooting federation - said there might be no future in the sport for him.

Bindra (27) told Hindustan Times the ways of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) - the sport's apex body in the country - and the apathy shown by others in positions of power convinced him there was "little chance of future success".

Bindra has been training abroad for six months for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the Asian Games in China later this year. The NRAI wants him to turn up for regular trials in India, irrespective of his international results.

Bindra came back from Germany to attend one such trial in December. It was postponed at the last moment. He wrote to the NRAI and Sports Ministry asking that he be allowed to prepare in a manner similar to his run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Till Friday, he'd got no response.

"The present situation has me very upset and does not leave me with much motivation," Bindra said. People close to the Olympic champion said he has run into rigid, illogical protocol several times. They felt he is seriously thinking about quitting if this continues.

"I don't see any chance of future success if I'm not allowed to prepare in a certain way that has worked for me and is what my professional team and I have planned," Bindra said.

NRAI senior vice-president Avtar Singh Sethi said: "We are going to ask the Sports Ministry to consider his international competition scores in lieu of trials. There will be a meeting in a few days." Bindra, however, has not been apprised of any such development.

Source: Web Search