Sports Authority of India to bear expenses for shooters' training, competition tour of Croatia

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Saturday said it will bear the expenses incurred during the country's Olympic-bound shooting team's upcoming competition-cum-training tour of Croatia.

The entire tour will cost Rs 3 crore.

A 15-member Olympic-bound Indian team will leave for Zagreb, Croatia on 11 May in a chartered flight to participate in the European Championship in Osijek from 20 May to 6 June.

After that the Indian team will take part in the ISSF combined World Cup, to be hosted in the same city from 22 June to 3 July.

The combined World Cup is being organised in place of the one earlier scheduled in Baku, Azerbaijan (from 21 June to 2 July) but got cancelled due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in that country.

After the training-cum-competition stint in Croatia, they will directly leave for Tokyo to participate in the Olympics, beginning on 23 July.

India is facing a devastating second wave of COVID-19 , which has left the country's health care system in complete shambles with most hospitals struggling for essential supplies like oxygen, ventilators, beds and life-saving medicines.