Al Shaqab International League kicks off

Doha: The inaugural Al Shaqab International League kicked off with a promising showcase of Qatar’s future equestrian stars, as both young and female riders exhibited their abundant talent yesterday. Hosted by Al Shaqab, a member of the Qatar Foundation, the showjumping event has been introduced to serve as a crucial platform for riders of all ages and backgrounds, offering them an opportunity to refine their skills and progress to the international stage. With a strong emphasis on promoting inclusivity, the Al Shaqab International League particularly focuses on providing opportunities for female and junior riders. The Indoor Arena of Al Shaqab witnessed intense competition among young participants, each vying for top honours. The Open Class had the largest representation with 27 combinations making up the quality field, which was held over two rounds on a height of 125cm-130cm. In the end, it was Rashid Towaim Al Marri who bagged the CSI1* class with his nine-year-old mare Van Gallettana Z, as the pair registered a fastest second round time of 28.25 secs. Following in second spot was Hamad Towaim Ali Al Marri, who timed 29.96 secs with Baron Z H. The third place went to Mohammed Abdulla S H Juma, who partnered Hurry Up to come in 29.99 secs. Earlier, in the Ladies Class – the opening event of the first edition of the Al Shaqab International League – talented teenager Haya Khalid Al Hitmi reigned supreme with veteran mare Dusty. The duo timed 27.66 secs. Maryam Jassim Al Suwaidi was second with Khaleesi in 28.45 secs, while Maryam Ahmad Al Boinin came third on The Toymaker in 29.36 secs. The Future Champions class was won by Hadi Nasser Al Shahwani with another veteran mare Beyonce. Khalid Nasser Al Khater (Actograna SZ) and Ahmad Ali Al Jaber (Diamond Legacy) finished second and third respectively. Suhaim Hamad Al Yafei emerged on top with Indie SKB in the Junior Champions category. Sheikh Mohammed Jassim A J Al Thani was second with Serendipity, while Mohammed Eisa Al Bukhari led BCO Come on Boy Z to third place.  

Florian, Feng shoot 25-metre pistol gold at ISSF World Cup Finals

Doha: Germany’s Peter Florian and China’s Sixuan Feng clinched the men’s 25-metre rapid-fire pistol and women’s 25-metre pistol titles at the ISSF World Cup Finals at Lusail Shooting Complex yesterday. Hosted by the Qatar Shooting and Archery Association, the World Cup Finals features over 190 elite shooters from 42 countries competing fiercely in various disciplines. All eyes were on the men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol final, where the young German showed impressive skills of precision. The three-time World Cup winner Florian registered an impressive score of 35, only missing five targets in the final. The 23-year-old said the title win came as a surprise. “I did not expect to win the title in the World Cup finals. After a two-month break following the last world championship, I resumed training just a week before the event. I am very happy with what I achieved here,” a jubilant Florian said. Following closely was Chinese two-time Olympic bronze winner and two-time World Champion Li Yuehong who scored 33 points. India’s 21-year-old Anish Bhanwala, a two-time world champion, secured the third position with 27 points. In the women’s event, Feng showed dominance throughout the final round. The reigning world champion shot a remarkable 37, missing just three targets. Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp secured second place with 31 points, while Feng’s compatriot Nan Zhao completed the podium after securing 29 points. Earlier, in the 50-metre rifle three positions, Frenchman Lucas Bernard Dennis Kryzs and Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad secured the men’s and women’s titles respectively. Kryzs topped the table with a total score of 465.2 points, while China’s Yukun Liu and Norway’s Jon-Hermann Hegg followed up with scores of 465 and 451.1, respectively. Kruzs highlighted the intense competition, stating: “Today’s competitions were characterised by strength, competitiveness, and excitement. I am very happy to achieve my goal and win the world title.” Duestad amassed a total of 464.8 points and shared the podium with her compatriot Jenny Stene who shot 460.6 points, and Germany’s Lisa Mueller who scored 450.2 points to finish second and third respectively. “After a strong competition with the world’s elite shooters, I was able to win the title, which is the best way to conclude the current season, which was strong and full of many diverse participations,“ Duestad said after her latest gold-winning performance.  

Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan qualify to Joao Pessoa Elite16 main draw

Joao Pessoa: Team Qatar duo of Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan qualified to the main draw of the ninth and the last Elite16 event on the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour which is taking place in Joao Pessoa, Brazil from November 22 through 26.  Top-seeded qualifiers Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan booked the last vacancy in Pool D, after cruising through Wednesday’s qualifications with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) win over Brazil’s Lucas Sampaio & Eduardo Barbosa (Dudu) and a 2-0 (21-17, 21-12) win over Austria’s Mathias Seiser & Florian Schnetzer.  

Draw held for AFC U23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024

Doha: The AFC U23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024 has all the ingredients to be a thriller following the official draw in Doha on Thursday. Defending champions Saudi Arabia lead the cast, with former winners Korea Republic (2020), Uzbekistan (2018), Japan (2016) and Iraq (2013) also looking to become the first team to lift the coveted trophy for a second time. Group A will see Qatar, Australia, Jordan and Indonesia vying to advance to the quarter-finals. Japan are the top seeds in Group B, with Korea Republic, United Arab Emirates and China PR standing in their way while Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Thailand and Tajikistan are the sides in Group C.   Uzbekistan lead the Group D teams, with Vietnam, Kuwait and Malaysia their challengers for the April 15 to May 3, 2024 continental showpiece. The top three finishers will qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, while the fourth-placed team will participate in a playoff against an opponent from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for a chance to compete at the Olympics. The Draw Group A: Qatar, Australia, Jordan, Indonesia Group B: Japan, Korea Republic, United Arab Emirates, China PR Group C: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Thailand, Tajikistan Group D: Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Kuwait, Malaysia  

Mehelba wins trap gold medal at ISSF World Cup Finals

Doha: Egypt’s Abdel Aziz Mehelba won the men’s trap gold at the ISSF World Cup Finals at Lusail Shooting Range yesterday. The 34-year-old edged out Italy’s Daniele Resca in a pulsating final held under the floodlights. Mehelba shot 46 out 50 targets, while Resca shot one less. Nathan Hales of Britain took the third spot. The women’s trap title went to Silvana Stanco of Italy, who shot one more target than Spain’s Fatima Galvez in the final. Another Italian Jessica Rossi was third. Assem Orynbay of Kazakhstan won women’s skeet gold defeating Chiara Di Marziantonio of Italy 51-50. Dania Jjo Vizzi won the bronze. Orynbay had to win a shoot-off against Sarah Mohamed of Qatar after being tied on 116 for the last spot in the qualification. India’s Ganemat Sekhon qualified on top with 120 out of 125, but eventually ended fifth. Ganemat was on par with Dania Jjo Vizzi after five rounds of qualification — 24, 24, 24, 23 and 25. Multiple Olympic gold medallist and world champion, Kimberly Rhode, was placed fourth ahead of Ganemat, while Jiang Yiting of China finished sixth. The men’s skeet gold went to Emil Kjelgaard Petersen, who won a nail-biting shoot of against Egypt’s Azmy Mehelba 26-25. Both shooters were locked at 56 targets each out of 60. Elia Sdruccioli of Italy won bronze. Nasser al-Attiyah failed to qualify for the final, after finishing eighth in the qualification. Rashid Saleh al-Athba was 12th.  

Pekler and Stankiewicz win 10m air rifle gold at ISSF World Cup Finals

Doha: Two gripping and volatile 10m air rifle finals at the ISSF World Cup Finals in Lusail produced victories in the men’s event for Hungary’s Zalan Pekler and, in the women’s version, Poland’s Aneta Stankiewicz. “I am still shaking a little bit because this final was really nerve-wracking”, 23-year-old Pekler said after a competition where he only took over the lead with four shots remaining, finishing on 251.2 ahead of Serbia’s Lazar Kovacevic on 249.4. Bronze went to 22-year-old European Games bronze medallist Jiri Privratsky of the Czech Republic after China’s world silver medallist and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Yang Haoran, who had seemed poised to win, failed to make the final three. The competition had been led over the first two series of five shots by Naoya Okada, the Japanese shooter who had topped the earlier qualifying with 632.0 points ahead of Pekler and Yang. Okada maintained that lead in the first two elimination rounds, but then scores of 10.3 and 10.0 dropped him to fourth, one place above Pekler, as Yang moved ominously through for a 0.2 lead over Kovacevic, who had scored a 10.9, and Privratsky. Two shots later the long-time leader was out, fifth overall, after scoring 9.8 and 10.5. Yang also faltered, however, scoring 9.9 and 10.5 with shots 17 and 18 to drop to joint fourth with Pekler as Kovacevic, who had scored a perfect 10.9 in the previous round, took the lead on 189.0 ahead of Privratsky on 188.7. Things got worse for the Chinese shooter in the next round as a 10.4 was followed by a 9.8 which meant he was out before the medal rounds, with Pekler taking the lead for the first time, 0.2 ahead of his Serbian rival. The Hungarian extended his lead over Kovacevic to 1.4 in the penultimate round as Privratsky left with bronze and although he wavered with the first of his last two efforts, scoring 9.8, he recovered with a concluding 10.7 to reach a total of 251.2. Kovacevic, whose opening 10.3 had narrowed the lead, was left with an impossible task by the time he fired his final effort, which earned 9.5 for a total of 249.4. The women’s final matched the men’s for drama. It appeared for a while that the Chinese contingent of Jiayu Han, world champion, world No 1 and world record holder, 19-year-old world silver medallist and world No 2 Zhilin Wang and 17-year-old world No 3 Yuling Huang might replicate the clean sweep achieved by their teammates in the previous day’s women’s 10m pistol event. Wang, Han and Huang had qualified first, second and fourth, with only France’s Oceanne Muller interrupting their dominance. The 20-year-old French shooter, who finished fifth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and won bronze at this year’s European Games, underlined her potential to be one of the home banner-carriers at next year’s Paris Games as she held her lead in the first set of five shots and reached the elimination rounds just 0.1 off a lead held by Huang. She eventually finished fifth – but not before the departure of the 24-year-old Chinese favourite, Han. Huang, whose elimination round shots included two 9.9s, eventually missed out on a medal by one place as Norway’s steadily improving European champion Jeanette Duestad brought her experience to bear in a competition where she secured bronze. Meanwhile Stankiewicz, at 28 the eldest shooter in the final, had moved into the lead after the second elimination round before producing round after round of consistently high scores, including a 10.8 and four 10.7s. She secured the greatest triumph of her career so far with 253.3 points, as Wang, despite two concluding 10.7s, remained well off gold on 252.6. “My first five shots weren’t the best so I had to run the girls,” Stankiewicz said. “My favourite shot was the 10.8, but there was a lot of 10.7s. It is all about the feeling inside you.”