Abu Dhabi: UAE’s gold medallist at the 2012 London Paralympic Games Abdullah Sultan Al Aryani bagged a sliver in Rio in the R1-Men’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 at the Olympic Shooting Centre on Thursday.
China’s Dong Chao clinched gold with 205.8 points to defend the title he won at London while South Korea’s Kim Suwan completed the podium with 181.7 points.
“I’m always so happy when I get a medal and it gives me a lot of confidence for my other events this week,” said an elated Al Aryani, who was a mere 3.2 points adrift off the winner.
“Standing events are not my strongest, but having the world record and winning multiple world cups gave me hope that I would do well today,” added Al Aryani, who will be now looking to retain his title in the mixed R6-50m air rifle prone SH1.
“The victory has boosted my confidence and I’m upbeat about retaining my title that I won in London. It will be a huge accomplishment if I can do that. We have put in a lot of work in the run up to the games and this result has shown that,” said Al Aryani, who, in all, accumulated 202.6 points after finishing the qualifying round comprising 22 shooters in second spot, behind Chao with 619.5 points.
Al Aryani’s compatriot Obaid Al Dahmani was also competing in the same event but failed to make it to the finals, finishing 18th with 603.2 points.
The back-to-back Paralympic gold was a huge achievement for Chao but he heaved a sigh of relief and accepted that it was a tooth and nail battle with Al Aryani until the end.
“The way I got this medal was not at all easy, I feel really lucky,” said Chao, who started the final with a perfect 10.9 in his very first shot. “Shooting is about controlling your own conditions and it’s about having a stable mind to remain focused. It was totally out of my expectation to win the same colour medal and in the same event. My family at home will be very happy because a gold medal at this level is different to any other competition. However, even if I wouldn’t have won they would still be very happy for me,” added Chao, whose compatriots Cuiping Zhang and Yaping Yan won silver and bronze in the women’s category of the same event behind Slovakia’s Veronica Vadovicova.
