Done with shooting, Shakil embarks on coaching

Shooter Shakil Ahmed, a gold medallist in South Asian Games and a silver medallist in Commonwealth Games, has put an end to his shooting career after being assigned as an assistant coach of Bangladesh pistol team for the upcoming Asian Olympic Qualification, scheduled for January 5-18 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The 29-year-old will work under Iranian head coach Najafi Charandabi Ahmad, who has been working with the Bangladeshi shooters since before the Asian Games last year where Shakil had participated in 10m air rifle event. Shakil finished 40th out of 56 shooters with a score of 564 points.

Since the completion of Asian Games in September-October, Shakil hasn't grabbed his pistol to train at the shooting range as he has been working as assistant coach of Najafi to groom upcoming players. Even though Shakil has participated in many competitions abroad as a shooter in the past, this is the first time he is accompanying the shooters as a coach.

"Actually, Shakil could not improve his score and seemingly stuck at a point. So our general secretary [EntheKhabul Hamid Apu] pushed Shakil to call time and work as a coach to groom younger players by working as an assistant coach of the national pistol team," Bangladesh Shooting Sport Federation (BSSF) member and camp commandant Mustaque Waiz told the Daily Star, adding that they are trying to bring other successful shooters into coaching profession.

Shakil emerged from nowhere to win a 50m pistol gold medal in the 2016 South Asian Games and then bagged a silver medal in the same event in 2018 Commonwealth Games but failed to carry the momentum in the last five years.

The lad from Khulna, though, never did well in his pet event of 10m pistol and in recent past struggled in the World Championship, World Cup, Asian Airgun Championships – scoring between 558 and 571 which were not good enough to see him into the final round.

Before participating in a two-day pistol training course in Dhaka in December last year, Shakil had also participated in another eight-day pistol training course in Kuwait during the ninth Asian Youth Pistol Training Camp in February last year.