Shooter Sheikh Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum won the first medal for UAE at the Asian Games when he finished second in the men’s Double Trap event in China on Sunday.

Dalmook Al Maktoum claimed the silver medal with a combined score of 182 which was just four points behind gold medallist Ronjan Sodhi of India in the final at the Guangzhou Shotgun Centre.

Hamad Al Maari of Qatar claimed the bronze medal after a shoot-off with two other competitors.

The 25-year-old Emirati qualified to the final by shooting a score of 138 in blustery and overcast conditions.

Dalmook Al Maktoum is following in the footsteps of UAE’s lone Olympic medallist Shaikh Ahmad Mohammad Hasher Al Maktoum who won gold in the same event at the Athens Games in 2004.

Sodhi went into the six-man final trailing China’s Pan Qiang by four points in the qualification rounds.

But the Indian revelled in the final to end with an overall tally of 186 - Pan managed only a 181 - to deny hosts China a clean sweep of the Double Trap competition.
“The cloud cover and strong winds made it difficult to shoot today,” Sodhi, who won the Asian championships last year, told reporters.

China earlier won team title as Pan Qiang, Mo Junjie and Hu Binyuan shot 414 points to push Kuwait to second place with 407.

India’s team of Sodhi, Noria Asher and Vikram Bhatnagar took the bronze with 403 points.

China lead the field with 19 of the 40 shooting titles decided so far in the 44-event competition.

South Korea are second with 13 golds, followed by North Korea (three), Kuwait (two), and Kazakhstan, Japan and India with one each.