KP Wins Bronze Medal In 5th National Youth Shooting Championship

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th july, 2016) : Khyber Pakhtunkhwa clinched bronze medal in Air Pistol event on the opening day of the ongoing six-day 5th National Youth Air Weapon Shooting Championship being played at Pakistan Navy Shooting Range, Karachi on Monday. This was stated by former international shooter and President KP Rifle Association Dr.

Inam Ullah Khan Gandapur while talking to APP on phone. He said the performance of both boys and girls shooters were par excellent and they would succeed in winning more medals. He said two upcoming shooters Saad Ullah Khan, Director Gandapur I&S Enterprises and Syed Shah Abbas of Shahjee Motors Peshawar have contributed Rs 2 million for buying ammunition and equipment besides sending 16 members boys and girls team to participate in the Championship. He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is taking in Air Pistol Youth team wherein Anwar Ammar Shah and Hamza Khalid grabbed bronze medal.

The girls team for Air Pistol comprising Anoosha Minhas, Muniba Javed, Eeshaw Sohail, Air Pistol Junior team Shoaib Khan an Sharjeel Jan and Air Rifle Youth team including Shariq Khan, Abdullah, Daniyal, Air Rifle Junior team with its members comprising Ibrahim, Osama, Karam Khan and Air Rifle Girls team with Anoosha Minhas, Maryum Shah and Samiya Shah will be competing in their respective categories and hopefully like Air Pistol Youth category, the boys would win more medals in the Championship, Inam Ullah Khan Ghandapur added. Inam Ullah Khan Ghandapur, who won gold and silver medals in South Asian Games, disclosed that despite very costly equipment and ammunitions, KP Rifle Association is very eager to provide a chance for the upcoming shooters to come and exhibit their class at national and international levels. He said there is lot of talented shooters and even FATA is full of talented shooters but due to no patronage to the game, all such talent become wasting.

He disclosed that out shooters represented the country in Sydney, Athens, Beijing Olympics, but due to limited resources did not give satisfactory result as Muhammad Siddiq Umar and Khurram Inam, were part of the Athens, Beijing and Sydney Olympics.

Hailing from District Karak, KP Mohammad Siddiq Umar, a marksmen specializing in rifle shooting got wild card entry into the Olympiad while skeet shooter Khurram Inam from Karachi took part in the previous two Olympic Games at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, he added. About performance in Asia, he said, in the regional SAF Games, which are now simply known as the South Asian Games, the shooters from Pakistan have pocketed a good number of medals as we have a tally of 69 medals including nine gold medals.

Of these medals, he said 11 have been claimed by Pakistan's women shooters. These don't include any gold, but there have been four silver and seven bronze medals, he informed. He said, Pakistan picked up a total of 21 medals in the shooting events at the South Asian Games in Colombo in 2006 including five gold, five silver and 11 bronze.

Inam Ullah Khan Gandapur won an individual medal in the free pistol and then joined hands with Sajid Iqbal to take another gold medal in the team event. The country's most celebrated shooter Dr Inam Ullah Gandapur said that this sport is not progressing in Pakistan and limited access is the biggest reason.

Our talent doesn’t get to take it at professional level,” he said. He said there was need to run this sport on professional level without any restrictions. If we want to produce role models we have to adopt a professional approach.

I am trying my best to train our youth so that they can become high-achievers,” added Inam, who also runs a shooting club in Peshawar. He said he could not become a world champion but he had the capability to produce world champions, and for that he needed support and freedom.