(KPL) The Lao National Shooting Federation had just selected its team and it officially declared last week that it is now seriously preparing for the 25th SEA Games in Vientiane at the end of this year.
The team is made up of six shooters, four men and two women, who are now on a six-month training stint in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Vietnamese government has pledged to provide support with the layout, organization and operations of the shooting range to ensure that it complies with the standards of the SEA Games.
The secretary of the Lao Shooting Federation, Dr Paseuth Bhodhisane said that the six sharpest shooters in Laos will carry out practices on shooting at moving targets.
The federation hopes Laos will win a minimum of one gold, two silver and four bronze medals at the SEA Games.
Lao shooters won several medals at the 32nd Southeast Asia Shooting Association (SEASA) Championship in Vietnam recently.
Dr Paseuth said, “This is the first time that Laos will be competing in the shooting event of SEA Games, mainly because we’re hosting the games but nevertheless we want to do our level best”.
He said that qualification for the SEA Games competition was a difficult process. Each country had to send its shooters to pass the 32nd Southeast Asian Shooting Association (SEASA) competition, before acceptance for the SEA Games.
“We already passed the 32nd SEASA last year in Vietnam and achieved good results, getting one gold, four silver and eight bronze medals and for the coming SEA Games we believe we can improve on that tally,” Dr Paseuth said.
The federation began its selection of a provisional shooting squad following the Eighth National Games in Champassak at the end of last year. The federation finally whittled down the squad to 35 and finally selected six of them.
Dr Paseuth told the KPL News reporter said the federation faced three major problems and to try to overcome them it has asked for help from the government and Lao Sports Committee.
“We need to train Lao shooting referees because we do not have any international referee. Secondly, the new shooting field in Dongsanghin village, Xaythany district, was not built for international shooting competition and thirdly our shooters do not have the necessary equipment for international shooting competition.”
He said at least one of the problems is being solved as the Lao National Sports Committee would be sending local referees for training in Thailand.
