UAE Olympic shooting stars bow out in Skeet

Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum fires a perfect score of 25 in the final round of Skeet qualification for an aggregate score of 118 on Saturday.

UAE's five-time Olympian has done his country proud together with Saif Bin Futtais Al Mansoori (114) despite failing to progress to the semifinals from a field of 34 shooters in the event which has seen some high quality competition.

Saif Bin Futtais Al Mansoori fired an impressive 23 in the final round of Skeet for an aggregate score of 114 to keep UAE's flag fluttering proudly in the Rio Olympics.

Abdullah Al Rashidi representing Independent Olympic Athletes and Marcus Svensson of Sweden are the runaway leaders in the competition having got 123 out of a possible 125 during the qualification rounds.

Fourth round

Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum fired a brilliant round of 23 in the penultimate round of qualification of men's Skeet for an aggregate score of 93 to keep UAE's flag flying proudly.

الشيخ سعيد بن مكتوم بن راشد آل مكتوم يبدأ الجولة الأخيرة من منافسات رماية السكيت لليوم الثاني من التصفيات pic.twitter.com/ruEQKEGqto

— UAENOC (@UAENOC) August 13, 2016

The five-time Emirati Olympian was a late starter but held his nerve bringing forth his years of experience to stay in contention in a toughly contested event where there is little margin for error.

الشيخ سعيد بن مكتوم بن راشد آل مكتوم ينهي الجولة الثالثة برصيد 23 نقطة من أصل 25 نقطة ويتبقى له جولة واحدة #rio2016 pic.twitter.com/Za7cWYtD7l

— UAENOC (@UAENOC) August 13, 2016

UAE's Saif Bin Futtais Al Mansoori has stormed back into contention in the men's Skeet qualification by firing an impressive 23 for an aggregate score of 91 in the penultimate round.

سيف بن فطيس يسجل23 طبق في الجولة الخامسة ويرفع رصيده إلى 112 نقطز #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/oJInyn93GF

— UAENOC (@UAENOC) August 13, 2016

Bin Futtais began the day on 68 after three rounds though he has plenty of catching up to do with the leading duo of Abdullah Al Rashidi representing Independent Olympic Athletes and Marcus Svensson of Sweden having achieved incredible scores of 99 after four round.

سيف بن فطيس يحقق 91 طبق حتى الآن في اليوم الثاني لمسابقة السكيت بأولمبياد ريو دي جانيرو #rio2016 pic.twitter.com/D4esyjIXCM

— UAENOC (@UAENOC) August 13, 2016

Only the top six qualify to the semifinals after five rounds of qualification.

Round three

Five-time Olympian Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum stayed on course to make it to the final round of men's Skeet competition at the Rio Olympics by shooting an aggregate score of 70 after three rounds on Friday.

Sheikh Saeed consistently fired rounds of 23, 24 and 23 to keep alive his hopes of qualifying at the end of day one.

The men's Skeet qualification rounds will continue on Saturday with the top six moving to the semifinals.

Saif Bin Futtais had a good third round score of 24 to finish on 68 points but has lot of catching up to do in the next two rounds.

Sheikh Saeed is placed 14th out of 32 competitors while Saif Bin Futtais is lying in 24th position with an aggregate of 68.

Sweden Marcus Svensson leads the field with three perfect rounds for a maximum score of 75.

Swimming

Nada Al Bedwawi clocked 33.42 seconds to come third in the first heat of the women's freestyle event.

The 18 year-old Olympic debutant's time gained her 47th place out of 59 swimmers in the event.

Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum has fired a brilliant 24 in the second round of qualification in the men's Skeet for an aggregate of 47 to stay among the leaders.

Sweden's Marcus Svensson shot another perfect round to lead with 50 points.

Saif Bin Futtais improved on his first round score achieving a score of 23 to stay in contention with 44 points.

Athletics

UAE's Alia Saeed Mohammed finished in 23rd position out of 37 runners, two of whom did not finish, clocking a time of 31:56.24 which was off her personal best.

Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana obliterated the field in the women's 10,000m finals with a spectacular run to win the first gold in athletics in Rio in a world record time of 29 minutes 17.45 seconds.

Kenya's world champion Vivian Cheruiyot finished a distanct second while Ethiopian star Tirunesh Dibaba took the bronze.

The 24-year-old Ayana pulled away from the field midway through the race and never let up before powering home in 29min 17.45sec.

Her winning time was nearly 14 seconds quicker than the previous world best over the distance of 29:31.78 set by Wang Junxia in Beijing in 1993.

Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya took silver while defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba took bronze.

Alia Saeed Mohammed has entered the arena for the women's 10,000m finals which has 37 runners facing the starter.

انطلاق سباق 10 آلاف متر سيدات بأولمبياد ريو دي جانيرو#rio2016#athletics ​#alia #10000m pic.twitter.com/fVuExSUvQS

— UAENOC (@UAENOC) August 12, 2016

Five-time Olympian Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Saif Bin Futtais Al Mansoori have begun their campaign in men's skeet qualification with scores of 23 and 21 respectively in the first round.

Four shooters Azmy Mehelba of Egypt, Mikola Milchev of Ukraine, Stefan Nilsson of Sweden and Marcus Svensson of Sweden led the way with perfect scores of 25.

UAE's quest for Olympic gold will intensify on day seven of the competition in Rio de Janeiro today when they line up in shooting, athletics and swimming events.

Shooters Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum  and Saif Bin Futtais Al Mansoori will kick start UAE's campaign in the Skeet competition scheduled to begin at 4.30pm UAE time Friday.

Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum has already carved a niche for himself and UAE in the annals of Olympics by competing in the Games for the fifth time, having qualified with a third-place finish at the Asian Shooting Championships in New Delhi early this year.

Bin Futtais secured his berth when he took gold at the ISSF World Cup in Cyprus and also won the Asian Olympic Qualifying event this year.

Sheikh Saeed who is coached by Lithuanian shooter Leonas Molotokas is a former Asian champion and won gold at the 2011 ISSF World Cup.

Bin Futtais secured his berth when he took gold at the ISSF World Cup in Cyprus and also won the Asian Olympic Qualifying event this year.

“I will give my best shot. The goal is to bring laurels to the country,” said 41 year-old Bin Futtais who is making his Olympic debut.

Track and field

Ethiopian-born pair Alia Saeed Mohammed and Betlhem Desalegn Belayneh will lead the assault for UAE on the track in the 10,000m and 1,500m respectively.

The women's 10,000m final is scheduled to start at 6.10pm and the women's 1,500m heats begins at 3.30am UAE time.

Alia Saeed is one of the favourites in the long distance race, being the fourth woman in history to win 10,000m gold at both the Asian Games (Incheon 2014) and Asian Athletics Championships (Wuhan 2015).

She recorded a personal best time of 31:10.25 in Dubai in April and is determined to do her best in her maiden appearance at the Olympics.

However, Belayneh’s participation is in doubt after she picked up a hamstring injury after winning the 1,500m in Heusden, Belgium last month.

UAE's youngest member of the 13-member squad and the country's flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony at the Games Nada Al Bedwawi will make her Olympics debut in the 50m freestyle heats scheduled for 8.02pm.

The 18-year-old is the UAE’s first female Olympic swimmer.

Sergui Toma has raised the expectations of Emiratis having become the country's second Olympic medallist since Sheikh Ahmed Bin Hasher Al Maktoum won gold in the double trap shooting event at the Athens Games in 2004.

Toma who won a historic bronze medal in the under 81kgs class on Tuesday defeating Italian Matteo Marconcini after having lost in the semifinals to the eventual gold medallist Khasan Khalmurzaev of Russia.

The third judoka to represent UAE, Ivan Remarenco, however, lost his opening round of 32 match against Algeria’s Lyes Bouyakoub on Thursday.

Medal quest

UAE opened their quest for a medal in judo on Monday when Victor Scvortov won his opening round of 32 bout against Ziad Mattar of Yemen in the lightweight under 63kg weight class before losing to the eventual gold medallist  Japan's Shohei Ono in the next round.

Emirati shooter Khalid Al Kaabi missed out on making it to the semifinals of the men's double trap in his debut at the Olympics despite firing a near perfect score of 29 in the final round of qualification on Wednesday.

Al Kaabi finished with a creditable aggregate score of 133 to be placed ninth out of 22 shooters in the event where only the top six progress to the semifinals.

Cyclist Yousif Mirza was first off the blocks for UAE on Saturday morning  in the Road Race.

However, the top Asian cyclist, was involved in a pile-up with a pack of riders after 30km.

Yaqoob Al Saadi was the second athlete to compete in Rio when he made a splash in the 100m backstroke.

Al Saadi, 20, finished fifth out of seven swimmers in his heat clocking 59.58 seconds.

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