Event in New Delhi: NRAP hopes India won’t place hurdles in Pak shooters’ participation

KARACHI: National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) is hopeful that India will not create hurdles in Pakistani shooters’ participation in a world cup in India next year.

According to the calendar approved by International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), a world cup for rifle/pistol/shotgun is scheduled in New Delhi in 2021. NRAP has announced its intention to send its Tokyo-bound shooters to all world cups before Olympics to prepare them for the games.

The ISSF world cups are also to be held in Changwon, Baku, Cairo, and Lonato. “Last year, India denied visas to Pakistan’s shooters for ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol held in New Delhi,” said NRAP secretary Razi Ahmed while talking to ‘The News’. “This was a big blow to the shooters who had worked hard and spent millions of rupees on their training to win quota places for Tokyo 2020,” he added.

He said that NRAP had called upon the world body to take away two Olympic quota places from the event and the International Olympic Committee did that which was a big win for NRAP. “Now, we are sure that India will not repeat its mistake of not issuing visas to our shooters,” said Razi.

The three shooters who have won places for Tokyo 2020 are G M Bashir, Gulfam Joseph, and Khalil Akhtar. They were sent to Germany earlier this year by the association for one-month training with renowned international coaches.

It is pertinent to mention here that the shooters will also participate in the Olympic Games Test Event in Tokyo next year.

Pakistan’s Usman Chand will participate in shotgun international events to better his rankings so that he could vie for an Olympics spot on the basis of international rankings at the end of the Olympic qualification cycle.