KARACHI: The third edition of the National Clay Shooting Championship will be held at the Pakistan Naval International Shooting Range from January 25 to February 1, Secretary Sindh Rifle Association (SRA) Razi Ahmed Khan announced on Friday.

He said country’s top skeet, trap and double trap shooters will be featuring in the 8-day competition. The event will also serve as the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games, being staged in Melbourne in April.

Pakistan’s triple Olympian Khurram Inam will be the star attraction as he will be battling for supremacy to regain his skeet title.

He said SRA is holding the event on behalf of National Rifle Association of Pakistan which will also be offering cash awards of around Rs.250,000 for the outstanding shooters of the championship.

“Cash incentives are offered to attract the shooters and create competitiveness and raise the standard of the championship,” said Razi who is also a licensed official of the International Sports Shooting Federation. Abdullah Iraq is the Chairman Organizing Committee.

Pakistan Army’s trio comprising Maj. Abu Bakr, Maj. Farrukh and Maj. Aamir will be defending their skeet, double trap titles respectively which they won in Jhelum last year.

Prominent shooters representing Armed Forces, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balu­chistan, and Federal Territory Islamabad would also be taking part. They included father-son pair of Capt. Mahmood Sultan and Ahmed Sultan, Col. Junaid Khattak, Sardar Naseer, Ahsan Barakzai and Brig. (Rtd) Sikander.

Razi further said that last date of registration is Jan 25 and the competition will start with Skeet and followed by Trap and Double. After preliminary five rounds competition, top six in each category will qualify for the finals.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2018