Guangzhou The shooters from the UAE stayed within the top half at the end of the first day of the men's skeet competition that got under way at the Guangzhou Shooting Centre Wednesday.
At the end of the first day of qualifying, the UAE trio of Saif Al Futais, Mohammad Ahmad Hussain and Shaikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum was in overall seventh place at the end of two rounds of shooting. Leading the competition in the teams was Kazakhstan with a total of 144 followed by Qatar (143) and Kuwait (139). China (139), India (138) and South Korea (137) were ahead of the UAE in fourth, fifth and sixth positions and a good chance of mounting a challenge in today's final.
In the individual competition, not surprisingly the leader was from Kazakhstan along with a shooter from hosts China. Vladimir Mukhamediyev shot rounds of 24 and 25 for a total of 49 to remain tied with China's Shuai Tang who had identical visits to the range.
There were another six shooters tied in second place with scores of 48 each led by Qatar's Masoud Saleh Hamad, Singapore's Yee Lee, Kazakhstan's Sergey Yakshin, South Korea's Chansik Jeon, Qatar's Abdul Aziz Saud Al Attiyah and Kuwait's Abdullah Al Rashidi.
These were followed by a clutter of three with totals of 47 leading them UAE shooter Saif Bin Futais along with Kazakhstan's Sergey Kolos and Middle East rallying champion Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah of Qatar.
The next UAE challenge in the individual competition is in 23rd place through Mohammad Hussain Ahmad's score of 44, while Shaikh Saeed — silver medallist at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha — is in 26th with a total of 43.
Day Two of the skeet competition will see another three rounds of 25 each.
Meanwhile, the UAE's challenge in the fencing came to an end when they went down to Saudi Arabia 39-45 in the last-16 stage of the men's team foil competition.
