Dubai : The Al Aryani brothers from Ras Al Khaimah dominated the competition at the 1st Fazza Sporting UAE Shooting Championships held at the Nad Al Sheba Shooting Club yesterday.
Daher Al Aryani took the first place with a score of 41, while younger brother Walid was pushed into third place by Khalid Al Draif to complete the podium lineup.
Ebrahim Al Bannai from sponsors Axiom Telecom presented the cheques and prizes to the top three finishers in the presence of Shaikh Ahmad Hasher Al Maktoum, the UAE's only Olympic champion.
Intense competition
Competition was intense among the 40-odd shooters who had started the qualifying process earlier during the day.
Leading the charge into the final was Daher Al Aryani with 22 targets, followed by Al Draif (19), Ali Bin Shakbout (18) and the trio of Saif Al Shamsi, Walid Al Aryani and Obaid Al Khatri with identical strikes of 17. Al Shamsi and Al Khatri showed good form in the final with identical scores of 21 from 30 targets.
However, Daher kept his concentration as his final visit to the range fetched him two strikes and a one-shot advantage over Al Draif to land the title.
His younger brother Walid did a lot of hard work in his first visit to the range with two pairs of perfect scores of five and four targets on his third and final visit to walk away with the third place, at 39 points.
Al Shamsi took fourth with 38 hits, while Al Khatri was fifth with a total of 38 and Bin Shabout ended at the bottom of the six-man field with 34.
"It's a privilege and an honour to win this competition that bears the name of our Crown Prince [Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum]," Daher Al Aryani told Gulf News.
