Shooters eye the finals in Baku

The Bangladesh shooters on Monday started gearing up with the hope of qualifying for the finals in both the men's and women's 10m Air Rifle events at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup, which will get underway on Wednesday in Baku, Azerbaijan following a two-day training schedule. 

Six shooters – Kamrunnahar Koly, Tabassum Natasha, Shaira Arefin, Rabbi Hasan Munna, Sharar Arnab and Robiul Islam – along with Iranian coach Zaer Rezai and assistant coach Shaifuddin Khan Shiplu left the country in the early hours on Sunday with the hope to translate their performance in training into the main competition in Baku.

Koly has recently come into focus after recording an all-time best score of 629.2 out of 654 in the 10m Air Rifle event by a Bangladeshi shooter during the ISSF World Championships in Cairo in October 2022. She then became the first Bangladeshi woman shooter to qualify for the finals in the ISSF World Cup held in Jakarta in January with a score of 628.4 in the qualification round.

However, Koly was not able to keep up the momentum in the World Cup in India in March as she scored 627 which left her to finish 19th, while her teammates Shaira and Nafisa scored 626.6 and 624.8 respectively to finish 21st and 27th respectively.

"The shooters have done well in the first training session today [Monday] and we are hoping that three to four shooters, including the male shooters, can qualify for the finals in their respective 10m Air Rifle events," assistant coach Shiplu told The Daily Star over the phone from Baku.

"Though Koly has been a bit inconsistent in training, we are confident with her. Natasha and Shaira are also doing well by scoring 626 to 629 in training; even Nafisa once scored 630 in training in Dhaka. If they can translate their training performance into the competition, then there are good possibilities for them to play in the finals," Shiplu added.

Shiplu is also hopeful to see one of the three male shooters in the finals of the 10m Air Rifle event despite them not being up to the mark in the last World Cup in India.

Robiul, Munna and Arnab scored 624.8, 623.6 and 623.2 respectively whereas the last shooter who qualified for the finals recorded 628.2 in India.

"Robibul and Arnab have been doing better by scoring 623 to 628 in training, so we can also hope for something from them. Munna is short on confidence but we are working to boost him so that he can play his natural game," said the former national shooter.