Shooting coaches positive
The Bangladesh shooting team will fly for Australia to take part in the XXI Commonwealth Games on Saturday, two weeks before the start of the event, with the hope of getting acclimatised to the conditions.
The multi-discipline event will get underway at Gold Coast, Queensland on April 4 while the shooting events will start from April 8.
Bangladesh will also take part in swimming, boxing, weightlifting, athletics and wrestling, but hopes of a medal lie only in shooting, which has earned medals in the past. Abdullahel Baki won a silver medal in the last games in Scotland four years ago.
Under the training of Danish rifle coach Klavs Christensen, the shooters, especially the young ones, have improved remarkably. Christensen is optimistic that Bangladesh's shooters -- Risalatul Islam, Rabbi Hasan Munna and Baki -- have a very good chance of making it to the eight-shooter final round in the 10m air rifle event while Montenegrin pistol coach Marko Sokic felt that the pistol shooters, too, have good chance of playing in the final round if they can keep their current scores in the tournament.
“The shooters had hard training without any break in the last couple of weeks but now they are resting to recover from mental and physical fatigue,” Christensen told reporters. “It's good for us to go to Gold Coast a few days ahead of the Games. We will get a lot of time to cope with conditions. It will help us recover from air travel, cope with the timing, weather and the range condition as we will be allowed to practise at the main range from March 27.”
Marko Sokic is optimistic about winning medals at the games. “The prospect of winning medals is bright because the shooters have improved a lot in training. If they can maintain the scores they have been achieving in practice, our pistol shooters will qualify for the final round,” said Sokic.
However, the focus will be on Risalatul, who outshone other senior shooters to win the 10m air rifle gold in the National Shooting Championship in October last year.
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