Shakil benefitted from break
While most athletes have found themselves sitting at home for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, famed shooter Shakil Ahmed feels he has been benefited by the break in competitions as it gave him opportunity to work on fitness issues.
The Bangladesh Army shooter, who won gold medal in South Asian Games and silver medal in Commonwealth Games, was in Dhaka cantonment for more than two months, working on his fitness, meditation and respiration as there was no opportunity to hit the electronic target with ammunition.
The 25-year-old believes the training helped his fitness, concentration and breathing which will eventually help him a lot when competitions start.
Since the start of the shutdown due to coronavirus, 20 shooters of Bangladesh Army trained two sessions a day before being given a month's vacation in May.
"It was though tough to focus on training amid such a situation but I got some benefit in the confinement as I worked hard to lose 10 kilos. I also improved my concentration through meditation and increased my breathing power with breathing exercise," Shakil told The Daily Star from Sirajganj.
"As shooters, we always want continuation of training at the range but the situation forced us to limit the practice. I think what training I have done in shutdown was not good enough but it was satisfactory because I was over-weight," Shakil said. "Besides, we need to hold breath for 30 to 50 seconds while shooting at the target. I lacked in holding breath in 60-shot games and I have improved in this aspect."
The promising shooter from Khulna is, however, worried about maintaining his performance as he has been out of practice for a long period.
"As there was no opportunity to use the Army shooting range during this time, the rhythm of my performance has been damaged. Now, I have to work harder in the next two to four months to get back to my regular performance level when everything gets normal," said Shakil, who also praised Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation's general secretary Entekhabul Hamid for being constantly in touch.
Shakil came into limelight from after winning 50m free pistol gold in 2016 SA Games and then won silver medal in the same event during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018. But he has gradually shifted his focus to the 10m pistol event after International Shooting Sports Federation dropped the 50m pistol event from Olympics roster.
"I am now focusing on 10m air pistol because of the omission of 50m pistol event from the Olympics. With scores I have in 10m air pistol, I believe I can win a medal in World Cup. I am scoring 575 to 585 out of 600 in practice and if I can continue setting such scores, I can compete in eight-shooter final round and, you know the final is anyone's game," said Shakil, who also won silver and bronze medals in 10m pistol events of the South Asian Games.
Shakil, however, feels the need to have a quality foreign coach to improve his performance level.
Comments