G M Bashir hopes to earn Olympic quota place in Beijing

KARACHI: Pakistan’s shooter Ghulam Mustafa Bashir is hoping to win a quota place for Tokyo 2020 at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol 2019 in Beijing next week.

According to the rankings released by Asian Shooting Federation (ASF) for the month of April, GM Bashir is ranked 6th in 5 metre rapid fire pistol category. Khalil Akhtar improved one position to jump to 13th in the same category.

Both the shooters will be seen in action in Beijing next week and will be eyeing quota places for Tokyo 2020. They were denied visas by India for ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol held in New Delhi from February 20–28. Both shooters are also on IOC Olympic Scholarship Programme.

Pakistan’s top shooter Usman Chand was ranked 8th in skeet for men. In trap category, Farrukh Nadeem lost three positions to sink to 23th and Aamer Iqbal lost two positions to slip to 31st.

Usman, Farrukh and Aamer recently participated in a World Cup for shotgun in the United Arab Emirates. In 10 metre Air Rifle for men, Zeeshan-ul-Farid lost a few ranking positions to plunge to 74th from 65th spot.

Ghufran Adil, too, lost ranking positions to slip to 94th from 85th position. In 50 metre rifle 3 positions for men, Ghufran Adil improved one ranking position to rise to 22nd.

In 10 metre air pistol for men, Rashid Idrees lost six positions to sink to 33rd. In 10 meter air rifle for women, Minhal Sohail lost nine positions to drop to 87th. Nadira Raees lost 10 positions to slip to 114th in the same category. In skeet category for women, Shahnoor Iqbal was ranked 43rd after losing two positions. In 50 metre rifle 3 positions for women, Nadira Raees retained 60th position.