Pakistan shooter Gulfam qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics

Athlete bags sixth position in International Shooting Sports Federation World Championships 10m air pistol event

KARACHI:

Gulfam Joseph wins Pakistan their first quota for the 2024 Paris Olympics as he finished sixth at the International Shooting Sports Federation World Championships 10m air pistol men’s event in Cairo, Egypt.

The 22-year-old has ensured at least one directly qualified place at the 2024 Olympics, and he is proving to be one of the most consistent athletes for Pakistan now. He also directly qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.

The event in the championship was offering four quota places, which are given to the countries and not the athletes.

Gulfam was competing in Cairo as an underdog, with China’s Yifan Zhang and Bowen Zhang taking the top places in the first round. Gulfam finished the qualifying round in third place with 586 points.

The top eight of the pack qualified for the final out of 120 shooters in the competition.

In the final round, Gulfam showed reliable results but quickly was overtaken by the shooters from South Korea, Ukraine, and China.

India’s Shiva Narwal, 16, was the first to get eliminated in the final, then Ukraine’s Victor Bankin, and Gulfam was the third, making him finish on the sixth place.

However, Gulfam’s effort was good enough to keep Pakistan in the running, as the quota place was still very much in Pakistan’s grip. His total was 98.4.

Bowen also fell short in the next series of shots and was the fifth shooter to get eliminated, whereas the South Korea’s Wonho Lee took the fourth place and won his country the quota, then Ukraine's Pavlo Korostylov bagged the third place with 251.0 points.

The final match for the gold medal took place between Jinyao and Yifan, which the former won in a close thriller.

Jinyao had a total of 254.2, while Yifan had 252.5 points.

In the end the quota that went to the countries were China, Ukraine, South Korea, and Pakistan.