2 PAK Shooters to feature in Rapid Fire Pistol Event of World Cup 2019
Pakistani shooters will now try to win Olympic quotas at ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Beijing as they missed the World Cup in India due to their visa rejection.
International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) offered Pakistan its help to get Indian visas for a shooting World Cup in India but Pakistan refused. But National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) emailed to President ISSF Vladimir Lisin and Secretary General ISSF Alexander Ratner that they would be unable to go to India even if the visas were issued. Executive Vice President NRAP, Javaid Lodhi stated in the email: “Please note that even if the visas are issued now, our team cannot travel to India with firearms and ammunition on another flight because it takes at least 5–6 days by the airline to get permission for carrying firearms and ammunition.”
“Both the shooters were very disappointed,” said Secretary National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) Razi Ahmed. “They had been training very hard hoping to achieve good results and win quota places in this World Cup in India,” said Razi. He said Bashir was working in Qatar on a very lucrative salary but left his job and returned to Pakistan to train with the hope of winning a Quota Place for Tokyo Olympics.
But now, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Khalil Ahmed will participate in Rapid Fire pistol event in the World Cup that is scheduled to be held from 21 to 29 April this year. They had performed reasonably well in the World Championship in South Korea last year. Bashir scored 583 out of 600 in that championship, missing the finals just by one point. Khalil scored 579 out of 600. This score helped them achieve world rankings of 11th and 25th, respectively. Both the shooters are on IOC Olympic Scholarship Programme.
After denial of visas to these shooters NRAP demanded from International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) that Olympic qualifying status of Rapid Fire Pistol event in ISSF World Cup in New Delhi should be revoked and the allocated Quota places be carried forward to the next ISSF World Cup scheduled to be held in China in April.
The IOC suspended the Olympic Qualifying status of these events in the world cup. Razi said it was the wholehearted effort of POA president Arif Hasan, who was in contact with the President of International Olympic Committee (IOC), to get Indian shooting world cup lose its Olympic qualification status.
