New Delhi: As twice Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker fought for gold in a tense 25m women’s pistol final at the Asian Shooting Championships, her coach Jaspal Rana was barred from taking his position in the coaches’ corner at Delhi’s Karni Singh Shooting Range.
The jury ruled that the colour of his trousers was in the prohibited list under the world shooting body, ISSF’s dress code.
The decision sparked a stir inside the arena with Jaspal, a multiple Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, asking technical officials to specify the shades of ‘brown’ that were not allowed. He eventually sat in the spectators’ gallery.
Manu missed out on gold after two shoot-offs against Vietnam’s Thuy Trang Nguyen in a thrilling final, finishing with silver.
The jury showed Jaspal the ISSF dress regulations on prohibited items. The rule states: “Sporting colours should be national uniform colours. If national colours are not worn, non-appropriate colours that must not be worn are camouflage, plaids, khaki, olive or brown.”
“You are not allowed to wear khaki, olive. Some shades are not allowed, and also brown. He was wearing a white-brown shade, which is one of the military colours, which is against the ISSF rules,” jury chairperson Haniye Khandan of Iran told HT.
“Any time we see someone not following the dress code, we ask them to correct it. It is very important. He could have changed and come back, but he decided to see the competition from the spectator area,” she added.
There was little time to leave the field of play, change and return for the final. Jaspal, who is also the high-performance coach of the national team, chose to remain in the gallery.
He was wearing an India jersey and ‘brown’ trousers. While the jury said the colour of his trousers fell under prohibited shades, Rana argued it was a permissible shade and asked for clarification over the exact colour codes.
Jaspal told HT he wore the same colours when Manu competed in the 10m air pistol final and there was no objection.
“Today they had some issues. I was not allowed to take the coach’s position in the FOP. They said the colour of the trousers is prohibited as per ISSF rules,” he said.
“I told them to specify the shades or colour codes that were prohibited. There are hundreds of shades of brown or olive. How do you differentiate? And when you are unsure, you can allow it with a warning for the future.
“Even for shooters it is important to have full clarity on the shades they can wear,” Rana said. Having coached at multiple international events including world championships and the Olympics, he said he had never faced such a situation before.
“I know the rules. You won’t leave your athlete to suffer because the coach is not following rules,” he said.
Asked if the incident could have affected Manu, Jaspal said, “I don’t think so. She can handle all this. She knew where I was sitting and we were communicating through eye contact. But this is a lesson for the future, so that it doesn’t happen on the big stage.”
A technical delegate from India said the decision appeared harsh.
“It could have been easily overlooked. One issue is that ISSF regulations don’t specify the shades in the rule book and that leaves it to jury’s discretion.”
