New Delhi, Nov 29 (PTI) More than 200 students are racing against time to complete the formalities required to enter the trials at the capital's Karni Singh Range over the next two days and stake their claims for selection in the Delhi team for the National School Games for Shooting.
The event is scheduled at Indore next month.
With the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi's Directorate of Education (Sports) issuing the circular only on Thursday evening, the young shooters were left with barely 12 hours to arrange a plethora of documents, fill up forms, set their shooting equipment and kits in order, make arrangements to reach the range on the outskirts of Delhi and get themselves in the right frame of mind before the 9:00 am reporting time on Friday.
"The Sports Branch, Directorate of Education, Govt of NCT Delhi is going to open selection trials cum coaching camp for 68th National School Games 2024-25 for shooting (U-14, 17 and 19y boys & girls) on 29 and 30 November 2024 from 10am onwards at the Karni Singh Shooting Range," read the circular dated November 28 issued by S. Sunil, Dy Director of Education (Sports).
The selected shooters will be eligible to represent Delhi in the tournament scheduled from December 20-24 and held under the aegis of the School Games Federation of India (SGFI).
The list of documents the shooters were required to furnish in such a short time would probably have left several participants having second thoughts on appearing for the trials.
"All students/players are required to bring all original documents like birth certificate, 10th class certificate with DOB, Certificate of DOB from HOS/Principal, Aadhaar Card, School I-Card, along with one set of photocopies (self-attested). All students/players are also required to bring completely filled Annexure-1 (copy attached) during trials. All the participants should be in proper kit as per shooting rules," read the circular.
No copy of Annexure-1 was attached with the circular on the Department of Education, NCT of Delhi website.
Dy Director of Education (Sports), S Sunil, said the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), currently in force in NCT of Delhi owing to severe pollution, and late approvals, delayed the process.
"It took some time to get the necessary approvals. There were some issues as well like GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan) because of which the approvals got delayed.
"This (trials) was scheduled to be held (earlier). There are some other shooting competitions starting at the Karni Singh Ranges in a couple of days' time, that's why the trials were held at such a short notice," said Sunil.
Another education department (sports) official said on the condition of anonymity that some officials associated with shooting sport had approached the directorate almost a month ago for the conduct of trials.
"Officials had been approaching the directorate since month to hold trials so that things could go smoothly. The Karni range is almost always booked as so many competitions take place.
"We had booked the range for November 27 and 28 initially but we did not get approval from our director. That approval from the director came on November 29 and then the circular was issued for fresh dates," said the official.
He added that it had put a lot of stress on the officials conducting the trials.
"Arranging everything at such a short notice is not easy," he added.