Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manavjit Singh Sandhu on Sunday feared that the harassment of Indian shooters at the ISSF World Cup in Dorset (UK) will affect their performance in the prestigious event.
"I have never faced such behaviour. We have participated in many international events but have never been insulted in this way. Some people are targeting us. But I don't know what do they want," Manavjit told PTI Bhasha from England.
"I am sure the incident will affect our performance in the World Cup because shooting is altogether a mental game. Mental peace and concentration are quite important to produce good results in shooting," he added.
The Indian shooting contingent had on Saturday alleged that they were harassed by the organizers, which forced the team manager M Padmanabhan to shoot off a letter to High Commission in London.
Incidentally, the organisers claimed it was in fact the Indian shooters who misbehaved with their transport staff.
Dismissing the allegations, Manavjit said, "Indian shooters are respected in the international circuit. Indians are among the prominent title contenders and their behaviour is always exemplary. This charge is really very disappointing."
The Olympian also rubbished the allegation that he abused the woman driver of the team bus and said the organisers were making some "baseless" statement to save their face.
"The organisers were trying to defend themselves by such baseless claims. But now they have withdrawn the accusation because they know that it is a very serious one and we don't do anything like that," Manavjit said.
"There were shooters of other countries as well and they were the eyewitness to the whole incident. Even the driver has later said on record that she was not abused and we have that video," he added.
The bus driver apparently slammed the door on some shooters and left them at the range. Some of the Indian shooters, who were on board, protested to the incident and were reportedly insulted by the transport supervisor.
