GM Bashir eyes 25m rapid fire medal round after superb show in stage-1

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Olympic Shooting
Karachi
Pakistan’s top shooter and national champion Ghulam Mustafa Bashir has put himself in a strong position to qualify for the medal round at the end of stage one of 25m rapid fire pistol shooting competition at Tokyo Olympics.
A total of 27 shooters played 30 shots in stage 1 on Sunday morning and will play another 30 on Monday before the top six plays the medal round.
GM Bashir ended day one with 293 points after playing six series of five shots each in three different time brackets in stage one. He’s placed at 6th position.
Khalil Akhtar is placed at the 16th position with a total of 286 points after the end of stage 1 of the competition.
Each shooter played six series of five shots each. Two series in eight seconds, two in six seconds, and two in four seconds.
According to the rules, in each series, every shooter fires one shot at each of the five targets within a specified time limit for the series.
Bashir, 34, who’s Pakistan’s national champion in 25m rapid fire pistol and a gold medalist of South Asian games team event, scored 99 in series of eight seconds, 98 in series of six seconds and 96 in four seconds.
Khalil scored 98, 96, and 92 in series of 8,6 and 4 seconds, respectively.
The shooters will return to Tokyo’s Asaka Shooting Range on Monday morning for stage 2 at 4:30am Pakistan time. At the end of stage 2, the top six shooters will qualify for the medal round.
Bashir, who’s currently at 6th position, will be aiming to — at least — retain the position during the second stage to confirm his berth in the medal round.
In the medal round, also scheduled for Monday, shooters will fire 40 shots with the first shooter to eliminate after the initial 20 shots followed by the elimination of another on every five shots.