Qatar’s shooter Rashid Saleh al-Athba won a direct qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics yesterday after claiming bronze medal in the men’s skeet event at the World Shotgun Championships in Osijek, Croatia on Sunday.Al-Athba finished with a tally of 28 shots, while Egypt’s Azmy Mehelba (40) won gold and USA’s Vincent Hancock (35) took silver. Sweden’s Stefan Nilsson ended up fourth with a tally of 17 shots. The top four finishers in Osijek earned a quota for their country. This will be al-Athba’s third Olympic participation. The 42-year-old had earlier competed in the men’s double trap at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and trap and double trap events at the 2012 London Olympics.
Egypt’s Mehelba made all his shots in the medal match to beat four-time world champion Vincent Hancock for gold. Hancock – also a three-time Olympic champion – made an extra 32 hits in the shoot-off to earn third place in the qualification. The 33-year-old topped his bracket of ranking match ahead of Nilsson of Sweden, who made all his 125 shots in the qualification.Mehelba led his bracket and entered the medal match together with al-Athba. It was mostly a match between Mehelba and Hancock after both of them made their first 24 attempts. However, Hancock missed his 26th shot while Mehelba kept his nerve to hit all of the remaining targets to win his maiden world title.Italy’s Rio Olympic champion Diana Bacosi, 39, won the women’s competition with a dominating 37-hit performance, missing only one shot in the final duel against 2015 World Cup Final champion Amber Hill. The 25-year-old, who had already secured a Paris 2024 quota for Britain at the European Championships, made 31 hits in the medal match for a silver.Samantha Simonton of the United States, 22, bagged a bronze, which was her first world championships medal. Vanesa Hockova, despite missing the podium, earned a Paris 2024 berth for Slovak.Direct qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics is on offer at the Osijek event, with 16 quota spots to be awarded in the individual events – 8 in trap and 8 in skeet.