UAE shooter Abdullah Sultan Al Aryani got the country’s 2016 Rio Paralymics campaign off with a bang when he finished with a silver medal in the 10-metre air rifle event on Thursday evening.
A score of 202.6 points saw the Emirati finish second to China’s Dong Chao who took the gold with 205.8 points. South Korea’s Kim Suwan completed the podium way back with 181.7 points.
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• Abdullah Sultan Al Aryani and UAE Paralympics team believe gold is in their grasp
Al Aryani advanced to be among the top eight shooters in the world to reach the two-stage finals, which was held after a gap of two hours from the qualifying stage.
There were 22 shooters in the fray with Al Aryani’s compatriot Obaid Al Dahmani falling short in the qualification stage.
In the finals, all eight shooters start from zero, battling through a 20-shot sequence with low scorers eliminated every few shots until the top two shooters duel it out, the highest scorer taking the gold.
There was a real scare at the third step of elimination for Al Aryani when he mustered only 9.1 points with his eighth shot, the lowest in the round. Al Aryani dropped from third to sixth.
But the shooter made a brilliant comeback in the next two rounds with returns of 10.7 from each and went from strength to strength as others faded. A score of 10.9 was the maximum by any shooter.
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