May 31, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427

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KARACHI, May 30: A 15-member Pakistan rifle shooting team would fly to Beijing on Thursday on an eight-week training under the supervision of Chinese coaches at Nanchang city.

Sponsored by the PSB and PST, the trip is part of preparation for this year’s South Asian Games and Asian Games.

Irshad Ali, Maqbool Tabassum and Mehwish Maqsood who represented the country at the Commonwealth Games recently are also part of the squad.

Irshad did the country proud when he captured silver at the Commonwealth Games.

The China-bound shooters were picked from amongst 39 trainees after trials watched by the two Chinese coaches Chen and Fung.

The foreign coaches who arrived on Dec 15 last have returned home on holidays and would join the team there.

Meanwhile, a reception has been arranged at the PN shooting range on Wednesday to give a warm send-off to the team.

Team:

Pistol: (men) Irshad Ali (Navy), Maqbool Tabassum (Navy), Mustaqeem Shah (Army), M. Kabir (Army). (Women) Farhat Nasreen (Army), Mehwish Maqsood (Navy), Azra Nazeer (Army).

Rifle: (men) Ayaz Tahir (Navy), Dawood Jan (Navy), Siddiq (Army), Tufail (Army). (Women) Urooj Fatima (Navy), Habira (Navy), Nadia Saeed (Navy).

Official: Lt. Cdr Arshad Awan (Manager)