No medal for Pak shooters at Asian level since 2010

KARACHI: Pakistan’s shooters have failed to win any medal at Asian level since 2010 – a situation that worries National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP).

Amin Karamat was the last man to win a medal; he won bronze at Asian Championships in Bangkok in 2010. He scored 117 points in the qualification round and 23 points in the final in skeet 125 event.

“This is a serious situation that worries us but this does not mean we don’t have good shooters,” said NRAP secretary Razi Ahmed while talking to ‘The News’. He added that Pakistani shooters have good standard but the Asian region was the toughest in shooting having world class shooters.

“We compete with them and it is quite satisfactory that our shooters manage to do well given the competition we have at the Asian level,” said Razi. He said that in the Asian Games in 2018, Usman Chand scored 122 out of 125 in the main qualification round of skeet event, missing the Asian record by only 1 score.

“In the process he was able to beat the Olympic bronze medalists of 2012 and 2016 Olympics,” said Razi. He added that in the World Shooting Championship held in South Korea in 2018, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir scored 583 out of 600 in Rapid Fire Pistol event to achieve the 7th position in the world.

Khalil Akhtar scored 579 out of 600 in Rapid Fire Pistol to get the 18th position. “But it is a fact that our shooters are not winning medals and this is why our sports fraternity doesn’t give our shooters recognition. “Yet, we have been doing far better than our countrymen in other sports, at both Asian and world level,” claimed Razi.