Shooter Kishmala qualifies for Paris Olympics

By our correspondent
LAHORE: Pakistan shooter Kishmala Talat qualified for the Paris Olympics 2024 on Monday after winning the silver medal in the 10m Air Pistol event during the Asian Shooting Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia.
She qualified for the prestigious event with a score of 236.3 in the final.
India’s Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan bagged the gold and bronze medal, respectively. Esha had a score of 243.1, meanwhile Rhythm notched up 214.5.
Kishmala also bagged a bronze medal in the Asian Games last year.
In the initial round, Kishmala scored 575 points, securing her qualification for the finals. Demonstrating remarkable skill in the final round, she competed against India’s Eshs for the gold medal.
Kishmala claimed the silver medal and a quota spot in Paris Olympics 2024.
National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) Executive Vice-President Javed Lodhi was very happy with Kishmala’s achievement.
“She did a splendid job and now our three shooters will feature in five events in the Paris Olympics,” Lodhi told The News here on Monday.
“Kishmala is a full-time student and she underwent just five days of training here under Russian coach and did a super job,” Lodhi said.
“We still have more chances in shotgun. There is one more Asian event and two world qualifiers and hopefully we will get some more good news,” Lodhi said.
He said that Kishmala now need more harder work to prepare for Olympics.
“She will need more work to get ready for Olympics which is a huge task. The issue is that we don’t get funds from the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and what we need is a huge purse so that we could spend on the shooters and prepare them well for the Olympics,” Lodhi said.
This is the third Pakistani shooter who has qualified for the Paris Olympics.
Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Gulfam Jospeh are the others who have already made it to the world’s most prestigious event.
And two more shooters have the chance. Besides them the country’s premier javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem and Melbourne-based eventer Usman Khan have also qualified for the Paris Olympics.
There is also a chance for javelin thrower Mohammad Yasir Sultan, taekwondo fighter Haroon Khan and boxer Zohaib Rasheed.