Gulf Times
Qatar’s Rashid Hamad Saleh braved tough conditions and competitors to win men’s skeet gold in the Qatar Open Shotgun Championship 2019 at the Losail Shooting Ranges yesterday.
On the last day of the nineday championship, hosted by the Qatar Shooting and Archery Association (QSAA), the 2008 Asian championship gold medalist Saleh defeated the 2011 European Championship bronze medalist Czech Jakub Tomecek to win the gold.
They both were locked at 56 each after a thrilling regulation finish. In the shootoff, Saleh held his nerves and got the better of the Czech challenger, who had won silver in the 2009 European Championships as well, 3-2 to emerge the winner and pocket $7,000 in prize-money.
Saleh was delighted to finish on the podium in front of home crowd. “I am very happy. It is very special to win gold medal in the presence of top international shooters,” Saleh said.
“Today’s win will definitely boost my confidence. I’m going to have a bigger challenge in the next few days at the Mexico ISSF World Cup Championship. I will take a two-day break and then start again. I hope to win a qualifying seat for the Tokyo Olympics.”
Hamad made it to the final through a difficult qualifying shootoff , which ended 19-18 in his favour after both the Qatari and French Eric Delaunay had tied on 119. Besides them, Denmark’s Jesper Hanssen also had 119 but he advanced as the sixth best shooter, hitting only one target in the shootoff, while Hamad was fourth.
Italian Luidi Agostino Lodde, the 2014 World champion with two appearances in the Olympic Games, bagged bronze with 45, while double world champion Anthony Terras, a French giant who has had one World Cup Finals and two World Cups to his name, was fourth after topping the qualifying rounds with 122.
Delaunay and Hansen grabbed the fifth and sixth places, respectively, getting only 25 and 17 targets.
London Olympics bronze medallist Nasser bin Saleh alAttiyah, who just followed his third Dakar Rally crown with the Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally title, was locked in a sevenshooter group with 118 each and missed out on qualifying for the finals by a point. Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova won the women’s Skeet crown, defeating French Lucie Anastassiou.
Qualifying for the final with the fourth best score of 114, the London Games bronze winner and 2012 World Cup Finals champion Bartekova struck 55, while Anastassiou could manage only 47. British Amber Hill, who was aiming to repeat her 2016 gold medal win, came third with 39, while Czech Barbara Sumova was fourth with 29 hits. Italian Francesca Del Prete was fifth and Russian Svetlana Demina completed the top six prize winners at 13. In the men’s junior section, Brit duo of David McNeill and Oliver Harrison finished first and second respectively, while Lithuanian Tomas Vaitekunas grabbed bronze. In the women’s junior section, Alisa Bogdanova of Lithuania won gold, Britain’s Madeleine Boyd took silver and Qatar’s Fatma al-Muraikhi clinched bronze.