UAE team trap shooting just miss out on bronze medal at Asian Games

Due to the quirks in team shooting scoring, the UAE finished fourth despite an even score of 345 with bronze-winning South Korea at the Asian Games on Sunday.

The UAE missed out on a bronze medal by the narrowest of margins on Sunday at the 2014 Asian Games in the men’s team trap shooting event.

Falling behind with a first-round 65, the team consisting of Hamad Al Kendi, Abdulla Al Falasi and Waleed Al Eryani stormed back over the next three rounds, including a near-perfect 74 in the fourth round which was the highest single-round total of the finals and put them in third.

In the fifth and last round, though, South Korea scored a 70 to UAE’s 68, leaving both teams with totals of 345. As per the rules of shooting, South Korea’s superior first-round 69 gave them the edge for the bronze.

UAE edged out Lebanon by a point for fourth. with India coming sixth at 341 and Qatar finishing seventh at 340.

Al Kendi had one of the more superb individual efforts in the team event, with his five-round 119 good for joint fourth-best.

The UAE went 65-69-69-74-68 round-by-round.

Al Kendi, in the individual men’s trap semi-finals, hit eight of 15 targets in finishing sixth. He reached the semis by also finishing sixth in the earlier qualifying stage out of a field of 46. Al Falasi finished 21st and Al Eryani came 27th behind him.

In handball the Emiratis were defeated by Qatar 27-15. They lost their opening match to China 25-22 on Saturday. The UAE handball team wraps up group play on Monday against Oman.

Other UAE action on Monday will include Majed Al Mansoori’s slate of five Pool C fencing matches in the men’s foil individual preliminaries, Mohammed Al Ghafri’s dip in the pool for the men’s 50-metre backstroke heats and Ahmed Al Mansoori competing in the men’s track cycling sprint qualifying.

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