Kenya shooting team eager to impress at World Championships
From left: Team Kenya shooting captain Sanford Otundo, David Kirui, Priscilla Wangui, Christopher Saina and Maurice Morara before departing to Cairo for the ISSF World Shooting Rifle and Pistol Championship on October 07, 2022.
What you need to know:
- A tough assignment awaits the team as the world's best rifle and pistol shooters converge at the iconic city for the event that guns off on Wednesday for two weeks at the Egyptian International Olympic Games Fields
- The team of four men and one woman skippered by Sanford Otundo will be battling for 32 slots available for the 2024 Paris Olympics
- Otundo and Wangui will field in the 10 metre Air Rifle while Saina, Morara and Kirui will compete in the 10 metre Air Pistol
Team Kenya of five shooters landed in Cairo Saturday exuding confidence of a good show at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Pistol and Rifle Championships.
A tough assignment awaits the team as the world's best rifle and pistol shooters converge at the iconic city for the event that guns off on Wednesday for two weeks at the Egyptian International Olympic Games Fields.
The team of four men and one woman skippered by Sanford Otundo will be battling for 32 slots available for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Otundo and Priscilla Wangui will field in the 10 metre Air Rifle while Christopher Saina, Maurice Morara and David Kirui will compete in the 10 metre Air Pistol.
“It will be a good exposure for our shooters even though our chances of qualifying from the event for the Olympics are slim,” said Kenya Shooting Sports Federation (KSSF) chairman Shoaib Vayani.
Vayani, who saw off the team said that the event is a good build up for Team Kenya ahead of the Africa qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics due at the same venue next year.
“We have high hopes of qualifying several shooters to the Paris Summer Olympics, especially Otundo and Wangui, who are currently on top of their game,” said Vayani.
"We are well prepared and ready to give our best shots. Though our first world event, we want to leave a memorable mark here," said Morara. "Humidity is high but we are trying to adapt to the conditions as fast as we can."
The men's competition has 36 events while the women will engage in 22 events. There are three mixed events in 10m air rifle, 10m air pistol and trap.
Hazem Hosny, the president of the Egyptian and African Shooting Federations, told Egyptian media that the event will be attended by 88 countries.
Besides Kenya and Egypt that is hosting the event for the first time, the event has attracted New Zealand, Taiwan, and Malaysia that arrived in Cairo on Thursday.
India, Kuwait, and Australia were to arrive on Saturday with Singapore, Bangladesh, and Austria due for Sunday.
The teams of Uzbekistan, Belgium, the Netherlands, America, Croatia, Finland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, China, Romania, Hungary, Japan, Maldives, Greece, South Korea, Oman, Mongolia, Algeria, and Britain will arrive on Monday and the rest of the delegations will arrive just before the start of the tournament.
Kenya was not represented in shooting at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held last year where 360 shooters competed.
A total of 170 men and a similar number of women will feature at the 2024 Paris Games.
