Shooting National Team Overhaul Ahead of Olympic Quota Bid

The Shooting Federation, after failing at Nagoya and winning only one bronze, has begun reviewing its national teams, changing the rifle and pistol squads and the clay target coaching staff.

According to the reporter of Mehr, the world championship shooting competition will be held from November 10 to 23 in Doha, Qatar; Competitions that, in addition to determining the world champions, are considered the first official opportunity to earn a quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. On the eve of this important event, the shooting federation has started the training camp for the national rifle and pistol teams from 20th Mehr, which will continue until 8th November.

The noteworthy point in the new list is the decrease in the number of invited people compared to the composition of shooters present in the Asian Games; A change that will be noticed after Iran's poor shooting performance in these games. The Iranian shooting convoy in Nagoya won only one bronze medal in mixed pistol, a result that once again raised questions about the composition of the national team and how to evaluate the performance of the national team.

Famous absentees of the shooting camp for Qatar

In the rifle field, Najmeh Khemati, Sharmina Chehlamirani, Helia Khamse, Saina Timuri and Amirmohammed Nekonam have been invited to the training camp. The team is led by Mohammad Zayer Rezaei and Amir Hossein Golpasand and Mohammad Hossein Karimi are also present as coaches in the technical staff.

In addition to Khemiti, Chahal Amirani and Nekonam, names such as Pouria Norouzian and Fatemeh Amini were also seen in the current lineup in Nagoya, but these two shooters are not in the announced list for the Qatar army.

In the pistol field, Hanieh Rostamian, Samieh Yassi and Vahid Golkhandan have been invited to the training camp to follow their training under the supervision of Maryam Soltani, the head coach of the team. On the other hand, the names of Javad Foroughi, Rasul Efti and Zainab Tomari, who were part of the Iran team in the Nagoya Asian Games, are not seen in the current list.

Removal of Foroughi and a significant decision after criticism

The most important point in the new pistol list is the absence of Tokyo Olympic champion Javad Foroughi. A figure whose presence in the composition of the team sent to Nagoya was also accompanied by criticism. In the Asian Games, Foroughi reached the 34th place in men's air pistol and failed to advance to the finals, a result that showed his distance from his peak days. Now his name is not seen in the list of the preparation camp for the world championships and the first stage of distribution of the Olympic quota; An incident that is considered one of the significant changes in the composition of the pistol due to his championship record in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Iran shooting in the idea of compensating for failure

In total, the new camp list of the national rifle and pistol teams includes eight athletes, while there were 12 shooters in these two disciplines at the Asian Games in Nagoya. The absence of several experienced figures, including Javad Foroughi, Pouria Norouzian and Zainab Tomari, along with the invitation of newer players, indicates the changes that have taken place after the failure of Iran's shooting in Nagoya and winning only one bronze medal in the composition of the national team of these two disciplines.

These changes are not limited to rifles and pistols. In the field of flying goals, the federation changed the head coach and replaced Ali Afsari with Payam Rajaei. The decision, which, along with the changes in the army list, is a sign of the federation's move to review the various parts of the national teams after the Nagoya results.

Now, the first test of this new approach will be the World Championship in Doha, Qatar, which will be held from November 10 to 23, and it will also be the first stage of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic quota distribution. For Iran shooting, this competition is an opportunity to test the changes made in the composition of athletes and technical staff in the field of competition and to show whether the revisions made can lead to different results from Nagoya or not.