Indian para-archers forced to pull out of Paralympic qualification event in Czech Republic after being denied visas

New Delhi: Indian para-archers were on Friday forced to pull out of the Final Paralympics Qualification and World Ranking Tournament in Czech Republic beginning on Saturday after their visas were rejected by the host nation. India and Brazil were marked as “extreme high-risk countries” by the Czech Republic and the European country’s ministries of health and foreign affairs did not give clearance to the 11-member Indian contingent for the event at Nove Mesto. Compound archer Jyoti Baliyan was expected to vie for a Paralympic quota in the 3-10 July event. “Sports Authority of India requested the ministry of external affairs’ intervention in securing special permission from the Czech Republic’s national sports agency and the ministries of health and foreign affairs,” the sports ministry said in a statement. “However, despite the best efforts, the 11-member Indian para-archery team has not yet secured the visas, leading to its withdrawal from the event.” The Sports Ministry has advised the Archery Association of India and Paralympic Committee of India to take up the matter with World Archery and International Paralympic Committee respectively and protest that the quotas in the Final Qualification for Tokyo Paralympics be rescinded. In February 2019, the International Olympic Committee had scrapped two Olympic quotas out of the 16 up for grabs at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi because Indian visas were not given to two 25m rapid fire pistol shooters from Pakistan.