Rio Games review panel headed by Abhinav Bindra recommends NRAI to make report public

Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, heading the five-member review committee to probe the shooters' Rio Games debacle, has submitted its report to the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and recommended the apex body to "make it public in toto".

The air rifle ace, who had recused himself from questioning the shooters as he was himself a part of the team, said "I handed over the report of the NRAI review committee" to president Raninder Singh.

"The committee unanimously has recommended to the NRAI president to make the report public in toto," Bindra wrote on his twitter handle. The 2008 Beijing Games gold medallist and former world champion acknowledged the effort put in by other members of the committee.

"Many thanks to all members of the committee for their hard work. We spent more than 70 hours working this," the 34-year-old added. While the panel wants the observations to be made public, one of conditions laid out by NRAI while forming the panel was that it would remain confidential.

The NRAI had said the mandate of the committee "is to examine and identify in a cold and ruthless manner" the causes behind shooting not securing any medal at the Rio Olympics.

The committee had also been mandated to recommend concrete steps that NRAI must immediately undertake to ensure that this is not repeated in future Olympics. The order empowered the committee to go into a wide range of factors affecting the performance of the athletes. Bindra retired from the sport after his fourth-place finish in Rio.