Bashir qualifies for Paris Olympics 2024

KARACHI: Pakistan's Ghulam Mustafa Bashir has won bronze medal and a quota place for Paris Olympics 2024.

He scored 15 points in the ranking match of 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at ISSF World Championship in Cairo on Sunday.

With the score of 15, he qualified for the medal match held among the top 4 shooters of the category.

In the medal match, he scored 19 points to win bronze medal after defeating top shooters from Korea.

Earlier, he scored 584 points in the qualification round to qualify for the finals.

Bashir, who represents Navy in domestic tournaments, is the second shooter from Pakistan to win a quota place for Paris Olympics. Army's Gulfam Joseph had already qualified for Olympics in 10m Air Pistol event.

Gulfam became the first Pakistan athlete to qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024 with a stunning performance in the World Championship when he finished third in qualification in Cairo a week ago.

The talented 10m Air Pistol shooter stunned the world by finishing third in the qualification round and then went on to leave Indian, Ukrainian, and a host of other shooters behind to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

Bashir won Olympic quota for the second time as he also won quota place for Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

"This is an extraordinary performance from Pakistani shooters considering our meagre resources," said Razi Ahmed, Secretary National Rifle Association of Pakistan, while talking to The News.

He added that winning quota places in pistol category is quite difficult. “Hence the performance of our shooters in this world championship is splendid,” he said.

"This was the last event for Olympic quotas in 2022. Now, we are focusing on quota events to be held in 2023," said Razi. He added that they were trying to prepare their shotgun shooters Usman Chand and Farrukh for winning Olympic quotas. "We are also preparing our juniors for next year's events," said Razi.