India Will Not Participate In Archery World Cup

India will not participate in Archery World Cup, Switzerland refuses to grant visas.

The Indian team’s hopes of participating in the Archery World Cup Stage-2, to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland from May 17 to 23, have been dashed.

The Swiss Embassy has refused to grant short-term visas to Indian archers due to the global pandemic Covid-19. Due to the Corona epidemic in India, many countries have banned the travel of Indians, including Switzerland.

The tournament was crucial for India before the third World Cup archery to be held in Paris to book a berth at the Tokyo Olympics. The Indian women’s archery team is yet to book a seat for the Tokyo Olympics.

However, Swarnapri has sealed her place in the individual event.

The men’s team, equipped with Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, and Praveen Jadhav, has also cut tickets for the Tokyo Olympics. The three archers will participate in team and individual events.

Apart from Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Komalika Bari, and Madhu Vedwan (standby) were included in the Indian women’s team for the Lusane World Cup, while the men’s team includes Atanu, Tarundeep, Praveen Jadhav, and Dheeraj Bommadevara.

The Indian variant (double mutant) of the coronavirus was found in Switzerland in the last week of April. Thereafter the State Secretariat of Migration in Bern banned all international travel from India.

Only Swiss residents and citizens are allowed entry into the country.

India was already in Switzerland’s ‘Red List’ and citizens of this country are mandated to be quarantined for ten days on entry into Switzerland.

Pramod Chandurkar, secretary of the Archery Association of India, said, “Swiss authorities are only issuing valid national residence permits and long-term visas for education and employment.”

They are also not doing short-term visas (tourists, travel, or business).

“We had applied to the Swiss Embassy in Delhi for the Archery World Cup to be held in Lausanne eight days ago, but they refused to give it due to Corona infection in India,” he said.

Anyway, after reaching Switzerland, the team will have to remain quarantined for ten days. We can only stay in a hotel room. In such a situation, we can neither train nor participate in the competition.

Due to so many restrictions and the non-availability of short-term visas, archers will not be able to leave.

“We are now focusing on sending archers for the Olympic qualifying meet in Paris and the Archery Association of India has already started the process of applying for a visa for it by keeping strict flight rules and ten-day quarantine rules,” he said.

We cannot miss the Paris World Cup because this is what the Indian women’s team has to get the Olympic ticket.