A senior coach travelling with India’s 30-member shooting contingent for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games has expressed disappointment over the arrangements in Japan, saying the long travel time between the team’s hotel and the shooting range has become a major issue ahead of the competition.The coach, as quoted by news agency PTI, said he arrived in Japan with high expectations but felt the arrangements had not matched what he expected from the host country. According to him, the Indian shooters have been accommodated around 50 km away from the training and competition venue and are staying in different hotels.For a contingent that includes some of India’s top medal contenders, such as double Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker and multiple Asian Games medallist Esha Singh, the daily commute has meant early starts and long hours on the road to keep up with training schedules.“This (transportation) is a real problem. But what can we do about it? I didn’t see any hotels in the vicinity of the shooting range. If there were, we would have reached early. They gave us accommodation at a place which was far, so now what can we do about it?” the coach, who was not named, said as quoted by PTI.He said the issue had been communicated to the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), though he had not spoken to federation officials about it in recent days.“I presume the federation (NRAI) would have told them (Asian Games organisers). I haven’t spoken to the federation about it, but we had informed the federation about this issue and this discussion had been going on,” he said.The coach also pointed out that long travel times are not unusual in shooting because ranges are often located away from cities and residential areas.“Having said that, I would also like to highlight that the ranges are very far away from main habitation. In China (2022 Hangzhou Asian Games) also, it used to take one hour to reach the range. So it has now become a part of shooting,” he said.“But having said all that, Japan being Japan, I am a bit disappointed with the arrangements. It could have been better.”
