Khaled Al Kaabi's dream of emulating his idol Sheikh Ahmed bin Hasher will remain on hold for four more years at least after his bid in the men's double trap at Rio 2016 came to an early end on Wednesday.
Sheikh Ahmed won the double trap gold at Athens 2004 and Al Kaabi was hoping to make him proud with a good show at Rio, but his campaign unravelled after a promising start on a windy, overcast day.
Starting with a 27 in the first of the five qualifying rounds, Al Kaabi put himself in contention for a place in the semi-finals with a 28 in the second round that lifted him to fourth on the points table.
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The Abu Dhabi Police First Warrant Officer then struggled, shooting a 25 in both the third and fourth to slip down to No 12 on the leaderboard.
Al Kaabi came back strongly, shooting a 29 in the fifth and final qualifying round to finish at ninth in qualifying with an aggregate score of 134, six behind German Andreas Loew and James Willett of Australia, who topped the qualifying charts with an identical score of 140, a new Olympic record.
The Great Britain duo of Tim Kneale (139) and Scott Steven, Italy’s Marco Innocenti (136) and Kuwaiti Fehaid Al Deehani (135), competing under the IOA flag, also qualified for the semis, which were scheduled for later in the night.
In Thursday's men's 100-kilogram judo class, the UAE's Ivan Remarenco will be looking to emulate – or better – teammate Sergiu Toma's bronze in the men's judo 81kg class.
Remarenco won bronze for the UAE in the 100kg class at the 2014 World Championships in Russia.
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