Sheikh Juma bags bronze for UAE in Asian Games

Sheikh Juma bin Dalmouk Al Maktoum won the first medal for the UAE at the Incheon Asian Games on Thursday when he claimed the men's double trap bronze at the Gyeonggido Shooting Range.
Sheikh Juma, a silver medalist at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, positioned himself for a medal but missed two targets in the final rounds of 30 for a third place duel with Qatar's Rashid Al Athba. They were locked in a close battle with Sheikh Juma (29 points) pipping Al Athba (28 points) at the post. Hu Binyuan won the individual title beating Fehaid Al Deehani of Kuwait in the final.
t was at Guangzhou that Sheikh Juma had started medal winning spree for the UAE with a silver as the others followed for the five UAE medals at the Asian Games in China in 2010. Hopefully, his bronze will trigger another happy medal winning spree at Incehon.
A poor form of Khalid Al Kaabi and Saif Al Shamsi denied the UAE a medal in the double trap team event.?Qatar, China and Kuwait were all tied with identical scores of 404 points at the end of five rounds. But going by the latest rules that have come into force since last year, Qatar took the gold medal on a better cumulative score in their fifth and final round. China won the silver and Kuwait settled for the bronze.
South Korea came in fourth place with a total of 401 points, while the UAE had to stay content with fifth position after its three shooters totaled 400 points.
In swimming Mohammed Al Ghafri failed clocked below par time in 50-m butterfly event to finish sixth in 25.78 seconds a shed slower than his personal best time of 25.74.
Mohammed Jassim Al Muhairi may have slightly gained a better placing in the 100-m freestyle event but his time of 54.96 seconds was far from his personal best of 53.35 seconds at the Munhak Aquatics Centre.
"I am very disappointed with my performance. But I think much of this can be explained due to our training schedule. I can only hope to look at the positives and get better for the next challenges ahead,” he said.
On the final day of track cycling, the UAE's Ahmad Al Mansoori clocked 3.279 seconds behind heat winner Kang Dongjin of South Korea in the race held over eight laps. In the second heat of the Repechages, Al Mansoori was slow to take off as he finished 0.797 seconds off heat winner Im Chaebin from the host nation.
Meanwhile, the UAE bowlers made a strong recovery in the men's doubles but missed out on a medal in the bowling competition. The UAE pair of Hussain Al Suwaidi and Naif Oqab totaled a pinfall of 2,461 to come within striking range of a bronze medal, only to miss out against Indonesia's Hardy Rachmadian and Mohammad Billy Islam by difference of a mere 28 pins.
Close on their heels in fifth place was a second UAE pairing of Hareb Al Mansoori and former Asian Games silver medallist Shaker Ali Hassan with a total of 2,430. The third UAE duo of Mahmoud Al Attar and Mohammad Al Marzouqi was sitting at the other end of the standings in 46th place after finishing the day's six games with a cumulative total of 2,068.
The three young UAE sailors continued their poor run after two days. After six races, Mohammed Al Hammadi remained in eighth place overall with 48 points in the men's Optimist class, while teammate Hamad Ibrahim Al Hammadi stayed in eleventh after five races in the men's Laser class at the Wangsan Sailing Marina. Young debutant Salama Adnan Al Mansoori was also in eighth overall with 38 points in the women's Optimist class.
Source: WAM