Brunei withdraws from shooting c'ships
JAKARTA (JP): Following Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Brunei Darussalam yesterday officially withdrew from the eighth Asian Shooting Championships, slated to be held here between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8. Thus, as of yesterday, 28 countries remain on the participating list.
As of yesterday afternoon, the Omani, Qatari and Kuwaiti teams arrived here. India, Macao, Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates were also scheduled to arrive yesterday evening.
Thailand fields the biggest team of 67 sharpshooters, host Indonesia 55, South Korea 54, China 50, Kazakhstan 36 and the Philippines also 36.
The Asian championships feature 19 events, 15 of which are regular events contested at the Olympic Games. The other four, which are yet to be included at the Olympic Games, are center fire, women's standard prone, standard pistol and women's running target, according to Ignatius Bambang Irawan of the Indonesian Target Shooting and Hunting Association.
The Asian championships will serve as the last UIT-designated qualification competition to attain minimum qualification scores (MQS) for 10 men's and five women's shooting events of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. UIT is the world shooting governing body.
The 10 men's events are free rifle 3x40 shots, free rifle 60 shots prone, air rifle 60 shots, free pistol, rapid fire pistol, air pistol 60 shots, running target, trap 125 targets, double trap 150 targets, skeet 125 targets.
The five women's events are standard rifle 3x20 shots, air rifle 40 shots, sport pistol, air pistol 40 shots and double trap 120 targets.
Of the 55 sharpshooters Indonesia will field at the championships, only seven have reached minimum qualification scores as of June 28.
Four of them are qualified in the double trap 120 target event which set a minimum qualification score of 90 points.
They are Sarmunah (103 pts), Sarmunah Silimang (91 pts), Supadmi (104 pts) and Sylvia Siliman (90 pts).
The rest are qualified in the air rifle 40 shots event whose minimum qualification scores are 375 points. They are Yuniarti Ilyas (385 pts), Shanti Dewi Supradjono (386 pts) and Maris Aurora (381 pts). (arf)