KARACHI, Feb 5: Pakistani marksmen have enormous potential but their skills need to be further polished under consistent specialised training. “The marksmen, particularly the young shooters, were going through hard drills in the camp and would hopefully prove their mettle in the coming international competitions,” declared two Chinese coaches, Chen and Fung, while talking to Dawn on Sunday at the Naval Shooting Range where the national camp is in progress.

The Chinese took over the assignment in the mid of December to prepare Pakistan markesmen for this year’s Commonwealth Games, SAF Games and Asian Games. The former specialises in rifle events and the latter in pistol. They have remained associated with different Chinese shooting teams in the past.

They said if provided regular international exposure, Pakistani shooters could bring laurels to the nation and were of the opinion that government should patronize and encourage the sport.

Commenting on the performance of women shooters, the coaches identified Urooj, Nadia, Habbira and Mehwish who have excelled in the camp.

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) on Sunday named a seven-member Pakistan team including three women, for the next month’s Commonwealth Games.

The games are slated to be held from March 15 to 26 at Melbourne.

The team was announced by secretary NRAP, Khalid Javed, who is also member of selection committee.

The two other members of the committee are Pervez Abbasi and Razi Ahmed Khan.

Marksmen Irshad Ali and Zahid Ali of Navy were narrowly beaten to third place to earn bronze in centre-fire pistol at the last Commonwealth Games held in UK.

They amassed 577 points as compared to 579 (silver) and 581 (gold).

Team:

Nazish Khan, Urooj Fatima, Habbira Yaqoob (rifle), Irshad Ali, Maqbool Tabassum (pistol), Khurram Inam and M. Shafiq (skeet). Karamatur Rahim (manager).