Pakistan shooters GM Bashir, Khalil Akhtar eliminated from Olympic race to medal stages

KARACHI: Pakistan’s shooters Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Khalil Akhtar were eliminated from the Olympic race to the medal stages after failing to remain in the top six in two stages of qualifiers.

While there were little expectations from Akhtar, the spotlight was on GM Bashir who was sixth, with a score of 293 at the end of stage 1 of the qualifier on Sunday.

Bashir couldn’t repeat the same show Monday morning, despite a good start and slipped down to 10th position at the end of the two-stage qualifier.

He got 286 points, taking his total points to 579 in the qualifying stage.

Bashir started the second stage well by earning 99 points on the first two series of five shots each in eight seconds. That brought him to the fifth position once, increasing the excitement among Pakistani fans.

However, in the next two series of five shots each in six seconds, Bashir managed to get only 95 points and 92 in the final two series of four seconds.

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Akhtar, who was 16th at the end of the first stage, managed to improve his place by one position but it wasn’t enough. He scored 97, 94 and 95 in the respective series in stage two, finishing with 572 points.

Surprisingly, frenchman Clement Bessaguet was also eliminated from the race to the medal stage. He was at the top at the end of stage 1 but had a poor outing on Monday.