Lebanese Trap Shooter Ray Bassil Ranked 23rd on First Day of Olympic Shooting Competition

Lebanon's trap shooter Ray Bassil ranked 23rd on the first day of the Olympic Shooting Competition on Wednesday — Women’s Trap Qualification — hosted by the Japanese capital Tokyo.

Bassil earned 67 points, eight points ahead of the Slovak champion, Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova.

Bassil started out in the sport aged 14, accompanying her father Jack on shooting trips.

By the age of 16, she was taking part in her first competition abroad in Algeria.

She has since climbed up the rankings in the region and internationally, winning gold in one event of the World Cup circuit in 2016.

Bassil says preparing for Tokyo has been complicated in a country fast running out of cash, where banking restrictions have kept people's savings trapped in the bank.

"Even getting the bullets hasn't been easy," she said.

"Supporters in Italy and some Lebanese had to help me get them shipped to Beirut."

But she says she managed to scrape together the minimum funds to compete in Japan, appealing to private sponsors on top of help from the sports ministry and the national Olympic committee.

The trap shooter is just one of six athletes from Lebanon set to compete in Tokyo.

Lebanon's hopes of getting a medal or achieving an advanced result now depend on weightlifter, Mahassen Fattouh, who is participating in the 67-kg weightlifting competition.