Confident shooters gunning for finals

Success in the XXI Commonwealth Games at the Gold Cost and the steady improvement in training has given the shooters hopes of bettering their previous performances in the upcoming Asian Games, which is set to get underway on August 18 in Jakarta.

Kabaddi had been the lone medal-producing discipline for Bangladesh before cricket was introduced at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, where Bangladesh bagged its first gold medal in the history of the Asian Games through cricket. In the following edition in Incheon, Bangladesh won silver and bronze medals in women's and men's cricket events respectively.

This time around however the cricket event has been dropped and Bangladesh's hopes lie on the shooters, who have never won a medal from the Asian Games, as the Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation has been conducting long-term training since December 2016 under foreign coaches with a vision to win at least one medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

The shooters have also been improving gradually and that was reflected in April's Commonwealth Games, where two silver medals were won by shooters. They now face another test, with silver medallists Abdullah Hel Baki and Shakil Ahmed garnering the most attention of the 18-member shooting contingent leaving here tonight.

Baki narrowly missed a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games after scoring 244.7 in the 10m air rifle final event, just 0.3 less than Australian gold medallist Dane Sampson. Meanwhile Shakil won the silver medal in the 50m air pistol event with a score of 220.5, 6.7 points less than the ultimate gold winner.

"I am going to the Asian Games with a bit more of confidence, which is unlike my mindset compared to the other Games I took part. I had always been confident whenever I took part in any Games but never thought of winning a medal, but I won in my debut appearances," Shakil told The Daily Star on Saturday.

"This time around I am at my peak. In training I have been scoring 575 to 586, which is a total that can take any shooter past the qualification round and into the eight-man final event in Olympics. My target is to transform my performance in practice to the Asian Games."

The confident 22-year-old, who is going to take part in the Asian Games for the first time after getting success in his debut appearance in the SA Games and Commonwealth Games, added: "I don't know whether I can win a medal from the Asian Games but if I can hit my practice score, I can tell you that other shooters will have to fight against me to take the medals home."

SHAKIL AHMED

Abdullah Hel Baki is a proven campaigner, who won back-to-back silver medals in the 10m air rifle event of the Commonwealth Games, but he has never qualified for the finals of the Asian Games in his previous two attempts. However, the 28-year-old shooter is hopeful of making it to the eight-man final round.

"I hit 625 in the weekend trial on Thursday and if I can manage 620 to 622, then I have a chance to qualify for the final round, which is my target," said Baki, who has been suffering from a toothache for a few days.

"No one can say about the medal because there are a lot of things, including luck, that are at play. If I can do my job and luck favours me, then something can happen," said Baki, who added that he regretted not taking part in a single international competition since the completion of the Commonwealth Games.

"The standard of shooting in the Asian Games is almost equal to the Olympic Games and Asia's top shooters are coming into the Games after playing the World Cup. However, we didn't get any opportunity to compete ahead of the Asian Games," said the shooter from Gazipur.