Hasli off the mark in qualifiers

SHOOTER Hasli Izwan Amir Hasan’s hopes of earning a top-10 finish is as good as over after a poor 88 in the third round of the men’s 25m rapid fire qualification round at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall yesterday.

Hasli, the first Malaysian shooter to qualify for the Olympics on merit, was on track after notching 96 and 95 in the first two rounds.

His poor total of 279 only put him 16th out of 19 shooters.

Hasli will not be able to break his national record of 581, achieved in the Asian Championships in Kuwait, even if he were to gun down a perfect 300 score in the remaining rounds.

The shooters will return to shoot three more rounds and the top six will qualify for the final.

Russian Leonid Ekimov topped the standings with 291 (99-95-97) while defending Olympic champion Ralf Schumann is tied with three others in fifth spot (288).

The Star