Kenya Shooting Sports Federation will send 14 firers to the Africa Championships in Algiers, Algeria. The event will also double up as Olympic Games qualifier.
Shooters in the team are seeking to win gold medals and increase card points towards the 2020 Olympic qualifying marks.
Small-bore captain Gurpreet Dhanjal urged trigger pullers to polish up on their precision to ensure they do not miss the qualifying mark like last time.
In 2015, Gulraaj Sehmi won the continental title but missed the qualifying mark for the Olympic by a point. Sehmi is part of the team set to leave for Algiers on November 16.
"Competitors have to either win gold medals or hit the Olympic quotas in the various disciplines. This time, shooters have to be very keen starting from their first round," he noted.
At the last Africa Championships, Kenya amassed three team silver medals in prone rifle, air rifle and air pistol and one bronze in individual three positions (standing, kneeling and prone).
KSSF have invited three-time world champion Gagan Narang from India to coach the Kenyan team as they seek to take their preparations a notch higher.
The 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist, who is among five shooters in the world with the record of scoring Highest Possible Score (HPS) of 600, said the team is doing well but there are few areas which need to be polished.
“The skillset is good but we only need to fine-tune on skills and work on firing under pressure,” said Narang, who started shooting at the age of 14.
National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) acting secretary-general, Francis Mutuku said his organisation is focusing on more qualification this time around. He noted that Nock will give all the necessary support to the team as they seek to qualify for the Olympic Games.
"We want to get many athletes to qualify for both Tokyo2020 and Paris 2024," said Mutuku.
