The participation of Pakistan’s three top shooters in the ongoing Paris Olympics is another feat in the country’s history as this is the 11th participation in Olympics by Pakistani shooters since 1952.

The first participation was in Helsinki 1952 when Jan Azam played 50m Free Rifle 40 shots prone event and scored 366 points to secure 58th position.

In Melbourne 1956, Saifi Chauhdry played the 300m Rifle 3-position event in which he scored 267 points to take 20th position.

M Zafar Ahmad played three events in the same Olympics as in 50m Pistol event he scored 460 points to get 31st position and in 50m Rifle 3-position event he scored 999 points to secure 43rd position, while in 50m Rifle Prone event he scored 582 points to take 44th position.

In Rome 1960, M Iqbal played in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event in which he scored 501 points to win 55th position.

Four shooters from the country participated in Tokyo 1964. Ahmad Salam played the 50m Pistol event and scored 507 points to take 46th position.

Aziz Ahmed Chaudhry played the 50m rifle 3-position event in which he scored 1040 points to secure 50th position. Abdur Rashid played 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event and scored 538 points to take 49th position.

Mohiuddin Khwaja played the trap event and scored 91 points to get 51st position. After that there was a long gap and the next opportunity for Pakistani shooters came in the year 2000.

Khurrum Inam played the skeet 125 event in Sydney 2000 and scored 119 points to take 23rd position. He once again participated in this grand event when he played the same event in Athens 2004 and got 37th position with the score of 114 points.

In Beijing 2008, Siddique Umer played the 10m Air Rifle event and scored 578 points to win 48th position. Khurrum was lucky to participate in the Olympics once again when he played Skeet event in London 2012 and scored 112 points to take 28th position.

In Rio 2016, Minhal Suhail played 10m Air Rifle event and scored 413.2 points to take 28th position while Ghulam Mustafa Bashir played 25m rapid Fire pistol event and scored 571 points to secure 18th position.

In Tokyo 2020, Khalil Akhtar scored 572 points to take 15th spot in 25m RFP event and G M Bashir scored 579 points for 10th position in the same event while Gulfam Joseph scored 578 points to achieve 9th position in 10m Air Pistol event.

This time in Paris 2024, G M Bashir, Gulfam Joseph, and Kishmala Talat are competing in five events as Kishmala and Gulfam are to feature in the individual and mixed categories of 10m Air Pistol while Kishmala will also play 25m Sports Pistol event. G M Bashir will feature in a 25m RFP event.

The National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) targeted two more qualification spots for Paris 2024 with Usman Chand (skeet) and Khurram Nadeem (trap).

But Usman Chand was unable to score 120 plus consistently as his average is around 117 with the highest score being 123, not enough to qualify for the Olympics. Also, Usman could not improve his international ranking (current ranking 148) to get a quota place for Paris 2024 based on rankings.

Similarly, Farrukh Nadeem, ranked 111, averages around 114 in ISSF events and has less international experience than Usman and he has never got a score of 120 or higher.

In the Olympics Cycle 2017-2020, five shooters from Pakistan finished among the top eight shooters of the world.

In the Olympics Cycle 2017-2020, Gulfam Joseph finished 7th in the Asian Championship in Doha in 2019 in the Air Pistol event and Idrees Rashid grabbed 7th spot at the Asian Airgun Championship in Kuwait in 2018.

In the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir took 7th position at ISSF World Championship in 2018 in Korea. Khalil Akhtar finished 6th at the ISSF World Cup in 2019 in Brazil.

G M Bashir also achieved 8th spot at Asian Games 2018 in Indonesia. He and Khalil grabbed 5th and 8th positions, respectively, at the Asian Championships in Doha in 2019.

In the Olympics Cycle 2013-2016, Kaleem ullah grabbed 5th spot in 10m Air Pistol event at Asian Airgun Championships in 2016 in Iran.

In the Olympics Cycle 2009-2012, Amin Karamat won bronze medal in skeet event at Asian Championships in Thailand in 2010.