The head coach of the Shooting Federation of Armenia, Seyran Nikoghosyan summed up the 2015 year, spoke about omissions, future plans and probable Olympics qualifications.

-Please, sum up 2015.

-We started 2015 with good results holding a training camp from the beginning of the year. Our young shooters took part in an international tournament held in Munich registering rather high results there. Many people were surprised with the growth of Armenian shooting. Hrachik Babayan took 17th position at the European Championship and then set a record at the Baku European Games. Lilith Mkrtchyan became a European champion at the running target. In general, we have good results and surely we should strive for more in 2016.    

-At the European Games Hrchik Babayan was leading but came 5th after one shot. What impeded him?

-He is young and isn't experienced enough in adults' competitions. The lack of experience impeded him and in some sense it was also crucial that the European Games were held in Baku.

-The shooting as a basic sport hasn't had Olympic qualifications yet. Why?

-The two qualifying tournaments were both in Baku. One of them was the European Games where we came out with incomplete team and the other was the World Cup held in Qabala where we didn't take part for obvious reasons.

-And next year, when will we struggle for the qualifications?

-We will do it at the European Championship in February. For the first time Armenia's team will have 16 participants - two coaches and 14 shooters. And we'll mainly compete at pistol and gun, running target. There was time when  girls' participation was fairly complex but now they participate almost as equals.

-How many Olympic qualifications do we expect being realistic?

-It's possible we will have 6 participants but I hope that at least 3 shooters will go to the Olympics.

-What tournament will you start 2016 from?

-In January we will join in an international tournament in Munich which we call a world small championship in our midst. It brings together shooters from almost all countries of the world. It is there that the strongest teams present their best athletes. We will leave for Munich with 8 athletes and 2 coaches.

ANOC press office