Swiss embassy says AAI never submitted visa documents for Lausanne World Cup | More sports News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Archery Association of India (AAI) did not submit the visa application documents for recurve Indian archers to the Swiss embassy in Delhi for their participation in the World Cup Stage 2 in Lausanne from May 17 to 23, an official embassy spokesperson confirmed to TOI on Thursday. The spokesperson said that AAI’s claim that they had applied for short-term visas for its Tokyo Olympics-bound recurve archery team to compete in the Lausanne meet is factually incorrect.
“First, we never received any visa applications for Indian archers from them, so the issue that the visas weren’t granted doesn’t arise. Secondly, there’s no restriction on the entry of sportspersons in Switzerland if they are travelling for this particular reason, which is the World Cup. Yes, you have to undergo a 10-day mandatory quarantine upon entering the country, but that’s for everyone. So, to say that the Swiss embassy refused them short-term visas is factually incorrect,” the spokesperson clarified.

However, AAI secretary Pramod Chandurkar begged to differ from the embassy’s version. “The AAI first wrote an email to the Swiss embassy on April 14, requesting for a Schengen visa for its archers. The Schengen visa would have covered both their World Cup trips to Switzerland and Paris (WC Stage 3 from June 21 to 27). However, we received a reply from the embassy that since the archers’ stay is longer in Paris (10 days of training and another week of competition), the AAI should approach the embassy of France for the visa application.
“In the meantime, the recurve archers went to participate in the Guatemala City WC Stage 1 and returned to India only on April 30. When we got their passports with us on May 1, the AAI again wrote to the Swiss embassy to grant short-term visas for the Lausanne WC. The embassy sent us an auto-generated mail on May 3 which said do not reply or resend further emails but confirmed that the visa section of the embassy has received the AAI’s mail. The mail (a copy of which is with TOI) clearly stated that the Swiss Federal Council has decided that entry into Switzerland is generally prohibited and the ‘C’ type Schengen visa can’t be issued or processed. They never mentioned that the sportspersons are allowed to travel. The issue was then and there over for the AAI. So, how could the Swiss embassy say that we are at fault?”
For the Lausanne World Cup, the Olympics core group of women archers Deepika, Ankita Bhakat, Komalika Bari and Madhu Vedwan (standby) and the men’s team of Atanu, Tarundeep, Pravin Jadhav and Dhiraj Bommadevara (standby) were selected to represent the country. The tournament was crucial to Indian women archers’ preparations for the Paris WC, which will serve as the final team qualification event for the Tokyo Games. India is yet to secure a women’s team quota place for the Olympics, as two-time Olympian Deepika has earned an individual quota for the Games and is assured to travel to Tokyo.
Indian men’s recurve side of Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav has already qualified for the team event, while the trio are also eligible for participation in the individual categories at the Games.
On Wednesday, Chandurkar had told TOI that the Swiss embassy had refused to issue short-term visas, without disclosing that the AAI didn’t submit the visa documents in the first place. “The Swiss authorities are only processing visas for valid national residence permit and long-term type D (education and employment). They are not issuing Schengen visa type C. They are also not processing short-term visas (tourist, visit or business). We requested their embassy office in Delhi for 6-8 days of short visa to Lausanne for the World Cup, but we received a communication from them refusing the same due to the Covid-19 situation here. Also, there was no point sitting idle in the team hotel quarantining for 10 days and not being able to train and perform at the event. With so many restrictions and non-availability of short-term visas, the archers can’t go. We are now focused on sending the archers for the Olympic qualifying meet in Paris and the AAI has already started processing visa applications for the same, keeping the strict flying rules and 10-day quarantine in mind. We can’t miss the tournament as the women team’s Olympic qualification is at stake,” he had stated.