The 2024 Paris Olympics has again left the country in disappointment as Pakistani shooters Gulfam Joseph and Kishmala Talat failed to move up in their respective events. On Monday, the pair participated in the 10-meter air pistol mixed doubles event but lost their chance at entering the next round by coming 14th out of 17 with 571 points from 600.

The result is the continued struggle that the Pakistani shooters have had to face, already hit by quite a hangover from their previous attempts. Gulfam Joseph was one of the seven athletes representing Pakistan who was ambitious to make it through to the next round by getting into the top eight but fell short to 22nd out of 33 participants with the same score of 571 points.

The 10m air pistol ended in a similar fate for Kishmala Talat, who finished 31st out of 44 shooters with a score of 567 and failed to qualify for the final in the women’s air pistol category.

Though still at the other end, the chances are that Kishmala will represent Pakistan in the 25m Pistol Women’s qualification event on August 2 while Ghulam Mustafa Bashir in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qualification on August 4.

The challenges are far from over for the Pakistani shooters and this is going to be an uphill start for them in this Paris Olympics campaign. Indian shooters Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema are also facing a hard time making it past their events; this puts up a very tough competition for South Asian marksmen at this year’s Olympics.

Fans and analysts will keenly observe this while the Olympics are underway: whether such athletes will rebound from their fate in the upcoming events.