Pakistan’s top skeet shooter Usman Chand, pulls off an impressive start in ISSF World Cup Shotgun 2019

Usman Chand is the only shooter from Pakistan who entered his name in Skeet event of ISSF World Cup Shotgun 2019 with his Individual Qualification Score of 122 points. Being Pakistan's top shooter, Usman made a good start in his competition yesterday when, in the first qualification round of skeet event, he scored 48 points (24, 24) to secure 27th position out of 84 competitors.

He will now play the second qualification round today in the hopes of winning a quota place for Tokyo 2020.

Usman have recently won a gold medal in the National Shooting Championship last week. He has been National champion in the category for last five years. In the Asian Games last year, Usman scored 122 points out of 125 in the main qualification round of Skeet event, missing the Asian record by only one point. But he was able to beat the Olympic bronze medalists of 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) has shortlisted Usman along with two other shooters to play a few world cups this year to win quota places for Tokyo 2020. In a letter to federal sports minister, NRAP stated that Usman and two other shooters have chances of not only winning places in 2020 Tokyo Olympics but with their skills, they can also win Olympic medals.

The 2019 ISSF World Cup is the annual edition of the ISSF World Cup in the Olympic shooting events, governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. The World Cup series, itself is also the qualification tournament for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.