Gulfam’s high-class effort goes in vain

ISLAMABAD: Debutant Gulfam Joseph’s high-class efforts fell just short as he marginally failed to qualify for the last eight in the 10m Air Pistol competition in the Tokyo Olympics Saturday. Eventually, he finished ninth in the 36-men competition.

The 10m Air Pistol competition that got the shooting event underway saw Gulfam getting off to a rather mediocre start but he picked up later and only missed the cut on his final shot. Had he struck the last shot on a perfect ten, he would have qualified for the medal round. The 21-year-old Gulfam was competing in the Olympics for the very first time. “It was the narrowest of misses for me. I hit a few perfect 10 and had I hit the last shot on ten I would have finished amongst the top eight and got a place in the medal round,” Gulfam said in a special interview with ‘The News’ from Tokyo.

“I got nine on the last shot with the closest of margins. It was a great experience for me and I have learned a lot from this outing. Since it was my first Olympics, I got off to a slow start,” he said.

Gulfam accumulated 578.13 points against Damir Mikec (Serbia) who qualified with 578.21 points. Damir ultimately picked up silver.

At one time, Gulfam was tied for No 7 and 8 with the score of 578/600.

“When you miss from such a close margin, you obviously feel low. But I feel I have time and will make an all-out effort in the coming months to make the country proud,” the youngster said. “In all, it was my third international outing.”

Gulfam returns home on July 26.

Iranian Javed Foroughi made his country proud by winning the gold in the event with Damir taking silver and Chinese Wel Pang grabbing bronze.

Pakistan shooters Khalil Akhtar and Ghulam Mustafa Bashir will be in action on August 1 in 25m rapid fire pistol event.