Pakistan’s foremost shooters Ghulam Mustafa & Khalil Akhter to feature in ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol Tournament

Pakistan’s foremost shooters Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Khalil Akhter will participate in ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol which is slated to be scheduled in Munich, Germany, from May 24-31. 

Bashir’s Individual Qualification Score (IQS) is 583 and Khalil’s is 579 for 25-metre rapid fire pistol event in this world cup. They will appear in the first qualification round on the 28th and will play the final qualifying round on the 29th.

Bashir is Asian No6 and World No12 in this category and Khalil is Asian No13 and World No30. Both are on IOC Olympic Scholarship Programme. They performed well at the recent World Cup for rifle/pistol in Beijing but failed to win quota places for Tokyo 2020.

National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) is banking on these two shooters for representation of the country in Tokyo Olympics. Last October, NRAP wrote a letter to the government that Pakistani shooters despite very limited resources had participated in the last five Olympics. “In the World Shooting Championship held in South Korea from 30 August to 15 September, 2018, Bashir scored 583/600 in Rapid Fire Pistol event to get 7th position in the World and Khalil Akhtar scored 579/600 to get 18th Position in the World,” stated NRAP. 

The NRAP hoped that theses shooters would win quota places for 2020 Tokyo Olympics and one of them might even win an Olympic medal. “For getting Olympic Quota we shall ensure their participation in at least 4 international Quota Places events during the next one year [2019],” stated NRAP. It is pertinent to mention here that shooting is the 3rd most important Olympic sport with 15 gold medals to fight for.