South Asian Games: India archers denied permission to participate after suspension of Archery Association of India

The Indian archers have been denied participation for the upcoming South Asian Games (SAG) in Nepal due to the suspension of the Archery Association of India (AAI) by the sports global body.

AAI was suspended earlier this year after it failed to follow World Archery’s (WA) guidelines after they appointed two parallel bodies.

According to The Times of India report, the decision to not allow Indian archers to compete at the SAG 2019 was taken during a meeting of the South Asian Archery Federation (SAAF) in Dhaka.

The reason cited: “Indian Archery Association has already been suspended by World Archery from participation in all international and regional tournaments,” the report quoted minutes of the SAAF meeting as saying. 

“The SAAF Board decided to adhere to the directive given by the World Archery in the participation of archers of India in any competitions registered under World Archery. The Board has unanimously decided not to permit the archers of AAI in the forthcoming 13th South Asian Games to be held in Nepal as the members of World Archery are compelled to adhere to the guidelines.”

The suspension will cause Indian archers like Deepika Kumar, Atanu Das and others to compete at the Asian archery championships, and the Olympic qualifier, under the world archery’s flag and not AAI. 

In addition, the medals won by the contingent will not be added as India’s but added to world archery’s tally.

Indian men’s recurve team has already booked their Tokyo 2020 berth but their women counterparts are yet to qualify.