Qatari trap shooter Mohammed Ahmed Al Rumaihi
Promising Qatari trap shooter Mohammed Ahmed Al Rumaihi will be looking to give hosts Qatar a flying start at the 14th Asian Shooting Championship at the Losail Shooting Range today.
The 30-year-old, who won a bronze medal at Austria Open in Vienna, in August, will be looking to make it past the preliminary rounds and qualify for tomorrow’s final.
Al Rumaihi, who has been competing since 2006 having taken to the sport five years earlier has been training under Italian coach Roberto Scalzone and he has shown a lot of promise over the last couple of years.
Today, Al Rumaihi will be looking to keep up the flashes of the brilliance he has shown so far in different competitions over the last few years.
A total of 38 Olympic quota places will be up for grabs across the 15 events.
The continental championship is the last chance for the shooters to get quota spots for the Tokyo Olympics next year.
Hosts Qatar will be looking to open their account in the Olympic quotas at the Championship.
Qatar’s challenge will also revolve around skeet shooters Rashid Saleh Al Athba and Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, who is aiming to qualify for a record seventh Olympics.
In the women’s skeet, 24-year-old Reem Al Sharshani, who finished fifth at the recently concluded Military Games in China, while notching a new personal record of shooting down 118 targets and qualifying for the final rounds, will be keen to clinch the Olympic quota.
Both the men’s and women’s skeet event are scheduled for November 9 and the finals will be held the next day.
In skeet team event, Qatar’s Rashid Saleh Al Athba, Masoud Saleh Al Athba and Abdulaziz Sahel Al Attiyah will be looking forward to put up a good show before home fans in familiar conditions.
In men’s double trap, Hamad Al Akhan Al Marri, who won gold in September at the 9th Asian Shotgun Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, will be looking for a repeat show on home soil.
The men’s double trap team of Hamad Al Akhan Al Marri, Rashed Al Athbi and Masoud Al Athba which also won a gold medal at the same event in Almaty will be eager to touch the Tokyo Games qualification mark.
The double trap event will be held on the last day of the Championship.
Besides the men’s shooters a number of women competitors will be aiming to pull off a few surprises and lay grab on the Olympic quota places up for grabs at the 10-day event.
Out of the 69 quota places secured so far for the Tokyo Olympics, China has won the maximum possible of two quota in almost every event, 25 in total, followed by Korea (12). India has so far won nine Tokyo 2020 spots so far.
There will be plenty of action on the first day of the event which kicked off yesterday with a colourful opening ceremony.
Besides the preliminary rounds of men’s and women’s trap and the first stage in men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol there will be three finals of air rifle and air pistol events.
Apart from women’s 10m air pistol finals, the other two will be in the 10m air rifle for men and women.
Over 1,500 shooters from 36 federations are taking part in the event, organised by Qatar Shooting and Archery Association (QSSA).
