Indian team annoyed over London hotel mix-up

By Sudipto Ganguly

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Olympic shooters are annoyed about being forced to leave their London hotel a day early after a booking mix-up at the shooting World Cup, a test event for the Olympic Games.

"It's very impolite of the administration or the hotelier, we don't know exactly who did it. It was not good for the athletes," Joydeep Karmakar, who will represent India in the men's 50-metre rifle prone event at the London Games, told CNN-IBN channel.

"We were looking for a good experience because they are the hosts for the Olympic Games also. We had expected much better treatment from them."

The Indian high commission in London found alternative accommodation for the team after their hotel asked them to vacate their rooms on Saturday, ahead of Sunday's final day of the two-week competition, officials said.

"Some of our shooters had to spend time in the hotel lobby or on the roads for more than eight hours," National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) advisor Baljit Singh Sethi told Reuters by telephone.

"I really don't understand why the treatment can't be proper. Shooting is the country's main hope and incidents like these can affect the performance of our athletes during the London Games."

Sethi said the NRAI was writing to the International Shooting Sport Federation, the International Olympic Committee, the London organising committee and the Asian and Indian sports authorities to complain.

India will send 11 shooters to the July 27-August 12 Olympics.

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Clare Fallon)