Shooters get electronic targets
Although certain disciplines in the country which have a higher standing in terms of Olympic events such as swimming and athletics continue to suffer without the use of electronic scoring boards, shooting, a medal-producing discipline at the international level, has gradually been equipped with electronic scoring targets (EST) in an attempt to give local shooters a taste of the environment abroad.
The installation of 10 such devices in the 10m range meant that the number of EST's in use has increased to 20, leaving 20 more targets to be equipped, while 20 and 12 EST devices were placed on the the 25m and 50m ranges respectively.
“The electronic target is more accurate than the paper or manual target. Our programme is being used in the Olympics and the EST is being used everywhere in the world, so it gives the shooters an edge to prepare at home,” said Mathias Vogtli, the man who installed the devices in two weeks after arriving on May 13.
While the Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation (BSSF) spent Tk 7.5 crore on setting up 42 ESTs in total this year with the help of sponsors, the Youth and Sports Ministry installed a total of 10 ESTs in the 10m range in two years.
“To be honest, we have recently won a few international medals at different levels because of the modernisation of the shooting range,” BSSF secretary general Intekhabul Hamid Apu told The Daily Star yesterday. “As the events of 10m targets are less costly than the ones of 50m and 25m targets, we put emphasis on that and installed 10 ESTs before, and are now are getting the results in the 10m air rifle and air pistol events.
“However, this time we are also giving the attention to 25m and 50m targets and installed ESTs because the same shooters, who are competing in 10m targets, can also compete in 50m target easily,” Apu said. “Besides, our Danish coach Klavs Christensen is also an expert in 50m shooting but could not train the shooters because of paper targets. Now, he has no problem in training the shooters in 50m target ranges.”
Abdullah Hel Baki praised this initiative and no one knows better than the Commonwealth Games silver medallist about how different it can be to perform on an EST after training on paper targets at home.
“We had problems in aiming and seeing the picture on the paper or manual targets but we are not facing such problem since the installation of the 10m target two years ago. We now get the opportunity to practise on ESTs regularly and the installation of new ESTs will give more shooters the chance to practise at the same time here,” Baki said while watching a competition among the young guns at the BSSF Complex yesterday.
“With the installation of electronic targets, the environment has changed a lot because it (the range) has now taken a flavour of a 10m international shooting range and we are easily matching different shooting ranges aboard,” Baki explained. “The shooters will get the right impression of their scores and can shoot with accuracy.”
The veteran shooter however believes that the country's shooting will improve rapidly if affluent rifle clubs install electronic scoring targets for their respective shooters.
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