Shooting's team events dropped?

Bangladesh's slim chances for medals in shooting events of the upcoming Asian Games got even slimmer after the games' organizers dropped all the team events from its roster, according to news in international media.

The Asian Games will be held in Jakarta and Palembang of Indonesia from August 18 to September 2 this year.

The organisers have reportedly removed a total of 25 events including all team events in shooting from their schedule, including traditional events like the rifle 50m prone (men and women), 50m pistol, 25m centre fire pistol and 25m standard pistol, according to a report on the Times Of India yesterday.

The Olympic Council of Asia's corresponding body in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA), however, said it has not received any official letter yet. “We don't know anything about such a decision yet. We have only started accreditation for the contingent which will end in April,” said BOA's DGM Sayeed Ahmed.

However, a high-official of the Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation (BSSF) said that they expected such a decision. “Although we have not heard anything official in this regard, we did expect team events to be dropped from the Asian Games after the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games organizers took a similar decision,” Asbab Ali, training committee secretary of BSSF, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Another high-up of the federation, chief executive officer Mushtaq Wais, said that they sent a 23-member entry list to the BOA on Thursday, with 10 male shooters, eight female shooters and five officials. If the number of events are trimmed, the numbers in the contingent will be trimmed as well, he added.

While Bangladesh have never won medals from shooting in Asia's biggest multi-discipline sporting competition, the country has won a number of medals, both individual and team, in other competitions like the Commonwealth Games and the South Asian Games.

Bangladesh's top shooter Abdullahel Baki, who won a silver medal in the 10m air rifle event in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and also represented the country in the 2016 Olympics, feels the dropping of shooting events is bad news for Bangladesh. “If such a decision is indeed taken, it will be bad for us,” Baki told The Daily Star. “Even though we haven't won in the past, there is always a chance of winning medals in team events because if one does poorly, the others can make up for it with good performances. In fact if team events are dropped, the chances of individual medals will also get slimmer.”