By Armstrong Vas
Doha: Teen shooter Amber Hill of Great Britain won the Qatar Open Shotgun championship skeet title in a tense final shoot-out to continue her incredible successful run in the new season.
Yesterday, the 18-year-old, aiming to become the first British woman to win an Olympic shooting gold medal at Rio Games, displayed an ice-cool temperament to defeat Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand 15-12 in the gold medal shoot-out at the Losail Shooting Range.
It was repeat of the World Cup Final in Nicosia, Cyprus last year, where Hill defeated Jiewchaloemmit to collect one of her two top titles of the year. The second title came at the Euorpean Games in Baku.
Hill, who had been in top form last year, hopes to continue her good form into the Games year.
“It feels absolutely amazing to win the gold medal here in Qatar. I ended last season on a high. And after the winter break, now think I have come up with a great win. I hope this will be my year,” Hill, a member of the Great Britain shooting squad for the Rio Games, said while talking to reporters.
She also took to twitter to announce her win in Qatar.
“Coming home with a big fat GOLD medal round my neck, One hell of a way to start my year! Thank for all the messages,” she twitted.
Hill, who won her maiden World Cup title at the age of just 15, said she is improving every season.
“I think my technique is getting stronger and stronger and I am feeling confident in a very important year. Lots of big events coming for me… few World Cups and I have also qualified for the Rio… so this win in the lead-up to the Games is very good, but I am taking one step at a time.”
Hill said she is looking forward to her first visit to Brazil.
“I’ve never been to Brazil and I’m really looking forward to it. I really like the sun so I wasn’t complaining about it and now I can’t wait to get some Rio sun.
Runner-up Jiewchaloemmit said the loss in the final was a good learning experience.
“I did not take my chance, it was a good chance, and I could have done it, this is a good lesson to learn to improve,” said the Thai.
“I have been coming here for last four years and it is always nice to be in Doha, nice weather, well organised event, nice people and top shooters,” Jiewchaloemmit, who finished third last year said.
“To win or lose is a pity, I am happy to have a silver around my neck, but hopefully it will better with the gold medal next time.”
The Rio-bound shooter said she has not put her Games plans in place.
“For me, Brazil Olympic Games is very difficult because the distance is very far from Thailand, half of the world of travel, but, the plan is coming little by little and mostly I will stay in Thailand, my home and train in my home and travel round the world from my home.”
She plans to be in Brazil early to get use to the different time zones.
“I must do that, travel minimum ten days before the Games and reach Rio,” she said in response to another question.
But she is not sure whether going there will be a right decision.
“Well, I do not know if I can train there or not, nobody knows, because the shooting range is not ready. So it is a challenge in that case.”
Melisa Gil of Argentina took the bronze medal winning the shoot-out against Aleksandra Jarmolinska of Poland, while Eman Alshamaa of Kuwait came fifth and last year’s winners qualified for the semi-finals but did not make it to the medal round.
Earlier, Sarah Mohammed of Qatar took gold in the junior women’s skeet event while Esmee Van Der Veen of the Netehrlands took the silver. Sarah’s sister, Hajar clinched the bronze.
“It was great to take the title. It was a long time I got the first place. Last year, I could not do anything worthwhile in this competition and this year I got the first. So it feels nice. Hamdullah, it was hard to reach it, but good that I reach there, Hamdullah,” said Sarah after the victory ceremony yesterday.
Meanwhile in the men’s qualifying rounds of the skeet, four shooters had a perfect score including Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and Rashid Hamd Saleh Al Athba.
Besides, the two Qatari shooters others who shot the 50 targets yesterday were Hussain Mohammed of UAE and Valeriy Shomin of Russia. Six others had a score of 49. The final round of the men’s skeet qualifying will be held today along with the semi-finals and final.
“It was nice to get a perfect score at the end of first two rounds of qualifying,” Al Attiyah said after the first two rounds.
“The start has been good, hope I will continue in the same vein in the next round and qualify for the final rounds,” said Al Attiyah, who has represented Qatar in five Olympic Games.
“After the Delhi event, I worked on my technique. Even if you are senior pro, sometimes some flaw creep into your techniques which need fine tuning, which I rectified after the India event,” he said in response to another question.
The Peninsula
