Pakistan to feature in shooting World Cup

KARACHI: In a bid to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, Pakistan will feature in this year’s World Cup Shooting in Azerbaijan, an official of the National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) said on Thursday.

“The way our shooters have performed in the last couple of international events and in 2014 Incheon Asian Games, they can gain direct entry into the 2016 Olympics,” Razi Ahmed Khan, executive vice-president of the NRAP, said.

The NRAP, he added, would send a 5-7 member squad to the World Cup competitions to be held in Azerbaijan city of Gabala from Aug 6 to 16.

He said the World Cup, being staged by the International Sports Shooting Federation in collaboration with Azerbaijan, would be a golden opportunity for Pakistan shooters in pistol, air rifle and shotgun categories to qualify directly for next year’s Rio Olympics.

“Both our men and women sharp shooters have achieved 15 Minimum Qualifying Scores (MQS) for the Olympics,” he underlined.

“As regards Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Zeeshan Shakir, they achieved highly encouraging scores in rapidfire pistol and air rifle competitions,” he stated.

In the 2014 Asiad, Zeeshan achieved the score of 618/654 in the presence of world-class shooters from India, and Bashir narrowly missed direct entry into the Olympics in rapidfire pistol with a score of 567/600. Minhal, a female Pakistan shooter, mustered a fine score of 409/436 in air rifle.

“Usman Chand was also in contention for a direct entry into the Olympic shotgun event,” Razi added.

According to the NRAP official, the country’s shooters finishing among top eight in the shotgun, pistol and air rifle events at the World Cup had the chance to qualify for the Olympics.

In November this year, Pakistan shooters will be featuring in the Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2015

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