Interview
Women’s national shooting team criticizing Iran’s shooting federation explicitly in an interview with Shirzanan
They tricked us
Shirzanan:Fereshteh Movahed/translation by Roja Najafi: Shooting sport has one of the highest ranks among all athletic fields in medal obtainment. This field becomes more important when it comes to the Olympics’ shares (places); so all countries try their best in shooting except our country. Although Iran women’s shooting team who had followed their practices with substandard equipments in the past year, put all of their efforts in achieving medals in Kuwait and opening their way for Olympics, the out come was disappointing. Shirzanan has an interview with Mahnaz Rohani, an air pistol shooter and a member of the women’s national team, born in 1984.
How come you chose shooting?
It was totally accidental. I went to register for another class; the class was full so I registered for shooting. It was three years a go. I am part of the team from a year ago.
But you came out successful out of an accidental choice?
Yes, after I started the class I became really interested. I continued very seriously. The past year however was full of disappointments for me.
what happened?
We practiced very hard for one year to attend the Asian shooting championship, which was also the Olympics qualification tournament. But unfortunately because of the federation’s poor planning we did not have a good outcome. We did not have a good coach. An average coach with no international experience; we wrote to the head of the federation and complained. But in the past year with different excuses and some fake promises they tricked us. We stayed with the same coach until the end.
What about the deputy manager of the federation on women’s affair, did you talk to her?
Yes, but she was only interested in the side stories. Besides the coaching issue we really had poor equipments; a week before the Asian Games we went out of bullets. We just wasted our time in that year.
Will you go if you get an invitation to join the team for next year?
If they become organized; if the team gets supported by the federation; yes, I will go back. Otherwise I won’t join the national team.
Putting the issues aside how do you see the Shooting sport in Iran?
Shooting in Iran has a lot of potential. We have both the talent and the ability needed for the higher places, we only need better attention and care.
