World Cup event ends on a low note for UAE
Emirati men’s skeet shooters fail to progress from qualifying round
Al Ain: UAE shooter Saif Bin Futtais missed out on a place in the men’s skeet semi-finals after losing his concentration in the fifth round on the final day of the ISSF Shotgun World Cup event at Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club here on Tuesday.
Bin Futtais was bidding to make the podium for the second successive round after winning bronze in Acapulco, Mexico, last month. He made a perfect start to qualifying when he scored 50 out of 50 in the two rounds on Monday, but then on resuming the competition on Tuesday he hit 24, 25 and his worst round of 21 to miss the cut by two hits. He finished 38th from 81 competitors in the closely contested competition.
Norway’s shooters dominated the discipline, winning both the gold and silver medals through Tore Brovold and Tom Beier Jensen respectively.
Fellow Emirati Mohammad Ahmad Hassan kept his best for last but it was too late to reach the semi-finals as he also collected 120, finishing in 31st place. His score sheet showed: 22, 24, 24, 25, 25.
Shaikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum, who won the gold medal in the event at the same venue two years ago, scored 24 hits in all his first four rounds and then scored only 21 in his final round to finish with 117 in 57th place.
A new world record was set by Brovold, Vladislav Mukhamediyev of Kazakhstan and Ralf Buchheim of Germany, who hit 124 each to break the old record of 123 set last month in Mexico by American Vincent Hancock and Italian Giancarlo Tazza.
Chinese Shuai Tang, Georgios Achilleos of Cyprus and Jensen won a shoot-off to reach the semi-finals ahead of four other competitors who also finished the qualifiers with 123 hits.
In the semi-finals, Brovold, who won the silver medal in the skeet at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and a gold medal in the World Championships in 2005, scored 16, followed by his compatriot Jensen in second place with 15. Achilleos with 14 and Buchheim with 13 also reached the final, where Brovold and Jensen repeated their semi-final scores to finish in the top two places.
Buchheim won the bronze as the event here came to an end.
