Shooting is a discipline which has produced one-third of the gold medals for Bangladesh in the South Asian (SA) Games - 22 out of 62 gold medals came from this discipline. The shooters have not disappointed the nation since the inclusion of the event in 1991, except for the 2006 Colombo edition.

Having shrugged off the poor performance in Colombo, Bangladeshi shooters returned in style with three gold medals in the following Dhaka SA Games in 2010, but as the 12th edition is around the corner, there is little hope of a repeat of the feat.

The current national shooting squad is considered 'a weak and young one' due to the absence of international gold medallists such as shooter-turned-coach Asif Hossain Khan, suspended Sharmin Akter Ratna, absent Sadia Sultana and retired Sabrina Sultana.

The shooters, especially the ones who participate in the 10m air rifle event, are currently being guided by Korean coach Lee Jong-Hyun. They have participated in international tournaments round the year but their last week's participation in the Asian Olympic shooting qualifiers in India did not give any positive hope about winninggold medals from 11 shooting events in the 12th SA Games.

Though Bangladeshi shooters will be competing in 10m air rifle, 50m rifle three position, 50m rifle prone, 25m and 50m pistol and other events, the focus is on men's 10m air rifle event where Commonwealth Games silver winner Abdullah Hei Baki, Shovon Chowdhury and Risalatul Islam are likely to compete against India's world-class shooters -- Olympics bronze winner Gagan Narang, Commonwealth Games gold winner Imran Hasan Khan and Asian Games bronze winner Chain Singh.

"Baki is the lone hope of Bangladesh for a gold medal because his scores are

at world level. We are hopeful that two shooters will play in the final round, which is a totally different phase, and If Baki can keep his cool, he can come successful," said five-time SA Games gold medallist and now a coach, Saiftil Islam Rinky, who is also optimistic about Bangladesh winning silver medals in all team events.

Neither Baki nor any of Shovon Chowdhury and Anjan Singh could qualify for the final round of the 10m air rifle event in the 13th Asian Olympic shooting qualifiers having scored 619, 615.5 and 608.5 points respectively. India's Akhil Shoran qualified for the finals with a score of 620.1 points but he found no place in the SA Games squad due to the inclusion of Gagan, Imran and Chain.

The performance of women in 10m air rifle event was also disappointing, with Tripti Dutta, Zakia Sultana, Sharmin Akter Jr. finishing 34th, 40th and 44th respectively while India's Ayonika Paul and Pooja Ghatkar, who will compete in the SA Games too,