Qatari skeet shooter Nasser Al Attiyah in action during the 14th Asian Shooting Championship at the Losail Shooting Range, yesterday. Pictures: Ebrahim Kutty
Doha: Qatari skeet shooter Nasser Al Attiyah shot two perfect rounds of 25 to be in the race to qualify for his seventh Olympics as he finished joint second at the end of three qualifying rounds during the 14th Asian Shooting Championship.
Yesterday at the Losail Shooting Range, the 2012 London Games bronze medallist finished behind Kuwaiti Abdullah Alrashidi, who had a perfect score of 75 in the three rounds.
Nasser and India’s Angad Bajwa Vir Singh, both missed one target each to finish with a score of 74 and are in the joint second place and will go into the next two rounds of qualifying eyeing the three skeet Olympic quotas up for grabs at the ongoing championship.
The continental championship is the last shooting event for Asian shooters to claim Olympic quota for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Indian medal winners posing for a photograph with officials.
Qatar has already got one Olympic quota for the Tokyo games at the ongoing championship though Mohammed Al Rumaihi in the trap event and are eyeing more Olympic quotas in the skeet event.
Besides Al Attiyah, Masoud Hamad of Qatar is in the joint third place with six others, after finishing with a score of 73.
Masoud, a double gold medallist at the 2002 Asian Games, will be keen to maintain the same consistent level heading into the last two rounds of qualifying.
The third Qatari in the fray Rashid Hamad, who represented the country in the last Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, started on a flourish and notched a perfect score of 25 in the first round but failed to connect two clay targets each in the next two rounds and finished with a score of 71 after three rounds.
Hamad will be eager to raise his level by few notches to keep himself in the race to qualify for the final rounds.
Today two rounds net score will decide which of the shooters qualify for the final rounds, which will take place in the afternoon session.
Forty five shooters are taking part in the qualifying rounds.
Qatar’s Reem Al Sharshani in action
In the women’s section, Qatar’s Reem Al Sharshani, riding on her new found confidence from the World Military Games started with a perfect score of 25, but in the next rounds she scored 21 and 19, to finish the first three rounds with a score of 65.
She is in the joint eight place along with India’s Saniya Sheikh. Meng wei of China attained a perfect score of 75 to gointo the second round of qualifying with a net score of 75 followed Sutiya of Thailand and Minji Kim of Korea.
Meanwhile, India’s Tejaswini Sawant secured India’s 12th Olympic quota by qualifying for the final of the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event yesterday. The 39-year-old Sawant earned the Tokyo quota by finishing fifth in the qualifications with a score of 1171.
Out of the eight finalists, six have already booked their Tokyo berths, paving the way for Sawant to earn an Olympic quota.
Provided she is picked in the final shooting squad for next year’s Tokyo Games, it will be here maiden Olympic appearance.
