Usman, Khalil, Bashir among top ten shooters in Asia

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Khalil Akhtar, Usman Chand and Ghulam Mustafa Bashir have entered the list of top ten shooters in Asia.

According to the rankings released by Asian Shooting Confederation (ASC) for September, Khalil and Bashir have been ranked 7th and 8th in Rapid Fire Pistol event, respectively. Usman is ranked 8th in skeet-125 event in which Khalil achieved the 15th ranking. Bashir is ranked 17th in the world in the same event.

This year Khalil played three worlds cups. In Munich he achieved 44th position and in Beijing he got the 21st place. In Rio, he achieved sixth position and also won a quota place for Tokyo 2020.

Bashir also played three world cups this year. In Beijing he achieved the 47th place and in Munich he stood 23rd. In Rio, he took 20th place. Usman too played three world cups this year. In Al Ain, he achieved 61st place and in Changwon he finished 37th. In Lonato, he ended 89th.

Usman will participate in Asian Championship in November in Qatar, aiming to win a quota place for Olympics. It is worth adding here that in Asian Games in 2018 Usman scored 122 points out of 125 in the main qualification round and missed the Asian record by only one point. He beat the Olympic bronze medallists of 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) is banking on these three shooters for winning quota places and medals at Tokyo 2020. “Despite our very limited resources, Pakistani shooters have qualified and participated in the last five Olympics,” said Javaid Lodhi, Executive Vice President of NRAP.

“In Rio 2016, two Pakistani shooters participated after getting Olympic quotas. No other athlete in any other sport in Pakistan could qualify for Olympics,” he said and added that they expected these three shooters to win Olympic quotas for Tokyo 2020 and one of them might even win an Olympic medal.