Bangladeshi shooters Abdullah Hel Baki and Shovon Chowdhury recorded their career best scores but still finished 28th and 61st respectively in the 10-metre Air Rifle event of the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany on Saturday. Their records were also not enough to qualify for the final round of the competition. Baki, the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist, scored 624.8 points to be placed 28th among 114 participants while Shovon scored 621 points to share the 61st position.
Baki, who obtained the wild-card entry for the Rio Olympics as the only Bangladeshi athlete so far, broke his previous best score of 622.8 that he set in the last month’s ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
Shovon, who narrowly missed the gold medal in the 12th South Asian Games, also surpassed his best score of 620.7 that he scored in the Rio World Cup in April.
Qian Xuechao of China grabbed the gold medal while his compatriot Cao Yifei managed the silver and Kulish Serhiy of Ukraine claimed the bronze medal.
Danish coach Klavs Christensen, who is guiding both Baki and Shovon for the Rio Games, said that Bangladeshi shooters should focus on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
‘We are not focusing on this World Cup or the Rio Olympics,’ the high-performance coach told New Age over facebook.
‘We have 2020 Olympics in our mind. I think it would be better if Bangladesh set a target for the Tokyo Games.’
Christensen also claimed his two charges are developing well and this type of participation will help the shooters to give their best in the forthcoming Olympic Games, which begins on August 5.
-With New Age input
