Dubai: Led by Olympic gold medallist Shaikh Ahmad Hasher Al Maktoum, the UAE missed out on yet another chance to qualify for next year’s London Olympic Games at the ISSF World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia, yesterday.
Represented by a quartet of shooters in the double trap discipline at the Gaj shooting range in Maribor, Shaikh Ahmad came closest when he ended in eighth place – missing the finals by just two places - in the field of 57 shooters.

However, there was consolation for Shaikh Ahmad when his student Peter Robert Russell Wilson of Great Britain took his second international medal of the season by claiming gold.

Wilson, who has already won an Olympic quota place after taking the silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in Concepcion (Chile) at the beginning of this year, had never won an ISSF gold medal before.

Entering the six-man finals with the highest qualification score of 146 from 150 targets, Wilson hit 49 of the 50 targets in the final round to leave 2008 Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Hu Binyuan in second and India’s Ronjan Sodhi in third.

Though missing out on a quota place, Shaikh Ahmad was thrilled with the performance of his “best student”. “He has great potential,” Shaikh Ahmad told the official international shooting federation (ISSF) website.

Shaikh Ahmad took the 24-year-old shooter from Great Britain under his tutelage after watching him shoot during practice. “That was one year ago and he has shown tremendous progress. He is my best student and he is learning real fast,” Shaikh Ahmad said.

“Two World Cup medals in one season is a great result. He can get far but for that we will have to wait and see how he fares in the future,” the 2004 Olympic gold medallist added.

Shaikh Ahmad’s position was not the best though after hitting 143 targets from the maximum 150 in the three preliminary rounds on Tuesday morning. Drawn in the sixth squad, Shaikh Ahmad had scores of 47, 47 and 49 to end in eighth overall. Finishing in seventh was Slovakia’s Filip Praj who was involved in a qualifying shoot-off against Italian veteran Daniele Di Spigno.

Among the other double trap shooters from the UAE, Saif Al Shamsi was second best when he ended in 33rd overall with scores of 46, 45 and 45 for a total of 136, while 2010 Asian Games gold medalist Shaikh Juma Al Maktoum started off well with scores of 48 and 46 in the first two rounds, but faded away with a score of 37 in the third round for a total of 131.

The fourth UAE shooter Ahmad Dhahi came in fifth in the side competition with rounds of 44, 42 and 47 for a total of 133.

The UAE shooters have one last chance this year to qualify for London 2012 at the season ending ISSF World Championships Shotgun in Belgrade, Serbia from September 3-14.