ASC holds annual Technical Forum
KUWAIT: The Asian Shooting Confederation held its second annual Technical Forum on Friday and Saturday to discuss matters relevant to the advancement of the Asian shooters and better development of the sport of shooting in general.
The meeting was held at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex, as those present expressed their appreciation of such meetings that proved fruitful since the first time it was held here in Kuwait where the ASC headquarter is located, and headed by Sheikh Salman Sabah AlSalem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah.
They said deep rooted changes have taken place since Sheikh Salman became president and moved Asian shooting to where it belongs as the largest continental shooting confederation in the world. They said that Asian shooting has its prominence in the world and its represented by Sheikh Salman at the ISSF as Vice President.
Vice President of Kazakhstan Clay Target and Practice Shooting Federation Sushil Chowdhary said shooting officials in Asia are happy with such meetings as they allow us the opportunity to exchange ideas and proposals regarding some difficulties face such as the use of paper and electronic targets.
He said that there are several proposals to be presented to Sheikh Salman who represents the entire Asian continent and will take those proposals to ISSF for consideration.
He said that he was happy because discussions were fruitful and will come with important results during the meetings of ISSF in November. When asked about the new ISSF rules that are now in effect he said these rules were made to make our sport more attractive to the media and closer to fans, but unfortunately there were complaints especially that they take longer time and become boring.
He said the chane of rules in the final rounds was to add excitement but the problem remained that others still did not know what was going on. He personally does not think the rules succeeded in achieving what it aimed for in the first place.
Chowdhary said that as the ASC is the largest continental confederation in the world representing 45 country and its shooters are winning medals in various championships in an unprecedented fashion, results of this meeting will be heard during the ISF meetings in November and they should adopt what we present to them.
Isteaqe Ahmad from Bangladesh believes that to develop shooting we should understand the technical rules better and how to implement what the ISSF has introduced. He said that rules were reviewed and proposals were made to be considered later by the ISSF.
He said we are very appreciative of the ASC’s opportunity to hold the meetings and facilitate everything making the meetings go smoothly. He said all what we have to do is work on developing Asian sport and improve shooters performance. He said good results started to appear after the election of Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah as ASC president. Isteaqe said Sheikh Salman is a hard worker and active and works to better this sport.
Razi Ahmad Khan from Pakistan said these meetings are the first after the change on the technical rules, and it was the president’s idea to work on understanding the rules and determine the drawbacks in them, adding that the ISSF will be compelled to change some of them when ASC president presents his proposals.
Bunnag from Thailand said special emphasis were given to the rules related to final rounds, and got some ideas from the committee members and presented various solutions to both the ASC and ISSF.
He said the new ISSF are still under trial and so far very few are those who are comfortable with them, as coaches, players and some officials do like the long time the rounds take and we must work on improving them because the core idea cannot be changed but can be amended. He said that Sheikh Salman paved the way for the improvement of the Asian shooting sport and this will continue for many years to come.
Chairman of ASC Technical and Judges Committee said that coaches and shooters have an idea about the new rules, but we found several mistakes in the rules and those were highlighted. He said technical committee members are interested in helping needy shooters to allow them participate in tournaments and other shooting related events.
He said Asian sport in continually improving and for the past three years world champions were from Asia. KIM Il Hwan concluded by saying “we are proud that Sheikh Salman is paying such attention to our sport and he already gave us a lot.