No event is complete without a controversy and ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi is no different. The shooters from Great Britain, including Paris Olympics gold medalist Nathan Hales won’t be able to compete at the event due to visa issues. It seems that there is some “confusion” over the visa.
“No, he’s (Hales) not (coming). They couldn’t get their business visas in time. I don’t know the exact ins and outs of it, but there was a complication…I think, what happened is that one of them (shooters) applied for a tourist visa, which was accepted,” former shooter Peter Wilson, personal coach of Hales in the Paris Games, told PTI.
ISSF Shooting World Cup Final
“But, then, they were told that they had to apply for a business visa and there was, for whatever reason, a complication and it was either revoked and the rest were left pending and they just didn’t have the time for it to be processed,” he added.
This comes as a massive setback for the British shooting team, who would have hoped for a few medals at the ISSF World Cup Final. “Obviously, it’s a massive shame that they’re not competing. So, there were three (shooters), two in men’s trap, Hales and Matt Coward-Holley, and one in men’s skeet Ben Llewellin. Ben got a tourist visa but was then told by our federation that he should reapply for a business visa.
“He applied incorrectly and at that point he had left it too late; apparently he was refused… I don’t know why he was refused,” Wilson revealed.