KARACHI, Dec 13: Pakistan’s rifle shooting officials hope for a better future for their sport following Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir’s taking over as the president of the National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP).

Razi Ahmed Khan, a veteran shooting coach and NRAP’s senior vice-president said on Saturday that Admiral Bashir was taking keen interest in promoting the sport in a bid to prepare world-class sharp shooters.

Razi, who has been running from pillar to post since the 2000 Sydney Olympics for the implementation of a long-term junior training programme for which he is still struggling to get financial backing, said that the NRAP chief had reviewed a long-term junior training programme.

“The president has gone through the proposed project and wants to implement it after some amendments,” he explained.

The project is aimed at establishing academies at the grassroots level with school and college students benefiting from them. The idea is to broaden the pool of sharp shooters in the country and then select the best ones for world-class training.

Razi believes that shooting is one sport in which Pakistan has the potential of winning medals at the Asian, world and Olympic level.

He points towards the fact that India’s ace shooter Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal at Beijing Olympics only because he was lucky to have received world- class coaching and training.—PPI