Indian Shooting Team Faces Hotel Room Mix-Up in Nagoya

Hello and welcome. Things getting from the ridiculous to the bizarre.

That's the way I can describe this. You know, I honestly did not expect this level of underpreparedness and mismanagement here in Nagoya.

You've heard from me all day yesterday. You've read Sourish's pieces.

You've talked about, uh, all of that from our athletes.

But the story that I'm now gonna tell you that is coming out of Indian shooting is absolutely bizarre.

Now, here's what happened, and you are seeing on your screen, or you will see on your screen in a bit.

I will explain and demonstrate to you what I am saying.

So on the sixteenth, like you know, fifteenth night, sixteenth early morning, we as thirty-five members of the Indian contingent came in, and five came in last night, which is the eighteenth. Total forty people.

Now, forty people, they were here, and the number of-- plus, you know, the total number of rooms were also booked for forty people.

Accordingly, on the sixteenth night, some rooms were booked in the Grand Tiara Hotel and some rooms, originally all, according to the allocation that was given by the IOA to the shooting contingent and which was given by the organizers to the IOA,

all the rooms for shooting were booked in the Grand Tiara Hotel.

Clear? I am showing it to you also. You can see India, India, India, India, India, according to the allocation.

Now, when the team came in, it was told that no, not all rooms are in this hotel.

Some rooms are in the Grand Tiara Hotel and some are in the Toyoko Hotel, Toyoko Inn Hotel. ""Chalo woh bhi chal jayega. Koi issue nahi hai. Aap chabi de dijiye."" So originally, for the thirty-five, we have already explained how the room allocation was done and how in the wee hours of the morning, people had to

lug bags through the roads of Nagoya and go to their hotel.

After all the thirty-five checked in, five rooms remained that they had not taken the keys for. Couple of rooms in the Grand Tiara Hotel and some rooms in Toyoko.

Now, Toyoko has multiple branches here in Nagoya. So there is a Toyoko Inn in some place.

There's another Toyoko Inn, much like a Marriott or a, you know, Holiday Inn or whatever. So there are multiple Toyoko Inns.

When Rahi Sarnobat checked in last night, and one of the coaches went to ensure that Rahi's check-in was smooth, or Rahi came into Nagoya last night, one of the coaches wanted to make sure that Rahi's check-in was actually smooth. So he went to the Grand Tiara Hotel and asked for Rahi's keys, showing all the details that these

are rooms allocated to India, and you can once again see it on your screen.

He was told that no, the two rooms that you had left in the hotel are now being used for dope control.

They are now being used for dope control, so you will no longer have access to these rooms.

Now, clearly, there was unpleasantness and there was a, you know, a, an argument that, "How can you give our rooms for dope control?

That can't happen. You have to give the keys."

They refused. "No, we can't give you the keys. Not happening.

You distribute, uh, the existing rooms between your athletes and somehow manage. We can't do anything about it."

The size of the room is six by eight, and if you actually... And I'm, I'm trying to paraphrase what the coach told me, that if you actually put the suitcase on, on the floor, then you can't walk. You have to put the suitcase on the bed and open it.

No one's complaining, but what is due to the Indians, the two rooms that were due to the Indians all of a sudden have now been shifted to being used for dope control.

Now, after all of the argument, they still did not get the rooms.

The two rooms have not been given to the Indians.

In the interim, Rahi Sarnobat, by mistake, by mistake, went to another Toyoko Inn.

Went to another Toyoko, showed her passport, and all of a sudden, in that hotel, she was given a room key, and she went and slept because she was tired. Now imagine, that is not even her hotel.

She mistakenly went there, showed her passport, said she's an Asian Games athlete, and in that hotel, she was given a room key, and she's gone and slept there.

And here in the hotel that the Indians were actually booked rooms, the rooms are being, are being refused, saying they are for dope control.

What is going on, none of us are able to understand.

I know Mansukh Mandaviya at the Indian Olympic Association have put a series of measures in place, but how do you kind of do anything when this is the level of mismanagement that is on? That I am not able to understand.

Go to a wrong hotel, they allow you to check in.

Go to the right hotel, you are told, "No, your rooms are being used for dope control." How does an Indian delegation or even the ministry step in and sort this out? This is becoming a real joke. A real joke. Take a look at the Indian allocation and you will understand that the thirty-three rooms that were booked to them was

actually done by the IOA, confirmed by the organizers.

But now what I've told you, they have not been given for whatever reasons, for dope control and others, and Rahi Sarnobat mistakenly went to a different hotel.

Now, what will happen today? Will she be given her room?

Will she check into the original hotel? None of us know anything about that.

We will try and keep you posted from Nagoya.