By Sports Reporter/Doha
With 40 medals including 12 gold, Qatar emerged overall champions of the 11th Arab Shooting Championships, which concluded yesterday at the Losail Shooting Range.
Qatar failed to clinch gold on the ninth and concluding day of the championships, but their men’s team comprising Mohamed Rumaihi, Mohamed Khjame and Nasser Hamidi clinched the Trap silver while the junior boys won the team bronze.
Kuwait men, who finished overall second, hogged the limelight on the last day of the championships as they won all the four gold medals at stake.
Kuwait’s former world champion Khalid al-Mudaf won the Trap Individual gold defeating compatriot Abdul Rahman in the final, while Algerian shooter Fouad Obeid clinched the third place.
“It is a nice win. I am happy with our performance in the championships as Kuwait finished overall second,” al-Mudaf said.
Talking about his competitor in the final, he said: “Abdul is my training partner and he is a former junior world champion. It was a tough final against him, I am happy that we both finished at the podium.”
Moroccan trio Ktara Amin, Zakaria Ktara, Abdulkarim Fattah won the team bronze.
In the Junior Trap Team event, Qatari shooters Abdullah Mhaab, Fresh Abdulaziz and Sultan al-Naimi claimed the bronze. Lebanon clinched the silver.
The hosts had a bagful of medals to show for their efforts at the championships in 250 shooters from nine countries took part.
Among the gold winners was the Qatar men’s Double Trap team – gold medal winners at the Incheon Asian Games. Sarah Mohamed won the women’s skeet gold while Matara al-Aseiri clinched the Rifle Prone gold. Amna al-Abdulla took the Trap gold and Al Dana al-Mubarak won the 25m Pistol event.
Aisha al-Mutawa won silver in Rifle Prone for the hosts. Other silver medal winners were the women’s team in the 10m Air Rifle, shooter Saleh Masoud Hamad al-Athba in Skeet and Dana Suleman in the 25m Pistol event.
The 39-year-old Saleh Masoud, a double gold medallist at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, clinched two medals, both silver, in individual and team event. The Qatari lost the gold medal shootout to Kuwait’s Zaid al-Mutairi.
In the Trap Team Women’s event, the trio of Amna al-Abdulla, Kholoud al-Khalaf and Nawal Abdulmalek clinched the silver for Qatar behind Morocco.
On Monday, Qatar women’s shooters won one gold and an equal number of silver and bronze medals.
Qatar’s men’s team, comprising of Riaz Khan, Zafer al-Qahatani and Adel Kahn, also claimed the 25m Standard Pistol bronze. Amna al-Abdulla of Qatar fired 68 points in three rounds in the final to beat Kuwait’s Sarah al-Hawal by one points for the Trap Women gold. Apart from hosts Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Sudan took part in the event.
The winners of the 11th Arab Shooting Championships celebrate at the podium yesterday.
