A move to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games archery and shooting competitions in India, six months before Birmingham hosts the rest of the Games, has been approved.

The Commonwealth Games Federation announced on Monday that the competitions would take place in Chandigarh in January of that year, with the main Games in Birmingham starting in July.

Pressure has been building on administrators to reverse their previous decision to drop the sports from the medal programme after India threatened to boycott the Games.

As an alternative, Both events will take place in Chandigarh in January 2022, with the main Games from 27 July to 7 August.

Birmingham decided not to include shooting or archery in its sports programme for 2022.

However, India, which has an excellent record in shooting and won 16 medals at the Gold Coast Games in 2018, initially threatened to boycott the Birmingham event following that decision.

As discussions progressed that threat was withdrawn in December. Shooting has been included in every Games apart from one since 1966.

The solution was arrived at after months of posturing and negotiations and according to CGF chief executive David Grevemberg, 2022 Games will be a 'pilot programme' to check the feasibility of hosting future Commonwealth Games in different cities, and countries even.

India will spend crores to host the two sports that lack competitiveness in the Commonwealth in which they are expected to win more than a dozen medals.

However this should be seen as a big diplomatic victory for India.

The return of the two disciplines for the next edition of CWG games is a cause of celebrating the rising power of Indian might in sports both on and off the field.

