Skeet shooters, Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and India’s Mairaj Ahmed Khan pose for a picture at the losail Shooting Range yesterday.
Qatar’s skeet shooter Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah - aiming to qualify for the record seventh time for the Olympic Games - is optimistic of his chances of making it to next year’s quadrennial event in Tokyo.
The 2012 London Olympic Games bronze medal winner, who is also a three-time Dakar rally winner said his preparation for the ongoing 14th Asian Shooting Championship has been on the right track.
“I practised today at the Losail Shooting Range and felt good,” the 48 year-old told The Peninsula.
Nasser and compatriot Rashid Saleh Al Athba will be seen in action on November 9, the first day of the skeet event and will be vying for the Olympic quotas up for grabs at the continental championship.
“The preparation has been good. It is the last competition for the Asian shooters to get the Olympic quotas for the Tokyo Games. There are three (Olympic) quotas in skeet. We will try to do our best in the Asian championship,” said Nasser.
“It is totally different because to qualify for your seventh Olympic Games you need to work very hard. The good thing is that the competition is being held in Qatar and on our shooting range. We will try to do our best,” he added.
The ace shooter said shooting at a home event will be an advantage but emphasised that a lot of effort is going into preparing oneself for the event.
Being a two-sport athlete is a challenging logistical exercise but Nasser committed to excelling at both disciplines.
“Not easy to take part in two sports, very difficult but I am really enjoying what I am doing for my country which is important. It is my dream to compete in a seventh Olympic Games,” he said.
Shooting and rally driving are two different sports he said.
“Two totally different sports, in shooting you need to be calm, in rally you need to have an aggressive, the concentration side is same for both sports, and I am quite happy doing both sports.” The Qatari sports icon’s advise to any aspiring sports person who come up to him is “you need to work very hard in your life to be successful,” a principal he has been following in his long and successful sporting career.
