Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
Tokyo: Oman’s experienced shooter, Hamed Al Khatri, is gearing up for the second consecutive presence at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the 50 m rifle 3 position competitions scheduled at Asaka Shooting Range.
The 36-year-old Omani did the Sultanate proud last year when he became the winner of the Arab’s shooting Championship in Egypt in January 2020. He will compete beside 38 top shooters from different parts of the world.
The competition qualification will start at 6:30 am (Oman time) and eight shooters will advance to the finals which will begin at 11:50 am (Oman time). All the shooters will get 120 shots distributed into 40 shots each for Kneeling, Prone and Standing within a duration of one hour and 45 minutes. The existing record of Al Khatri is 1,176 points and he holds the Arab record.
Training programme
Sultan Al Rushaidi, the head coach of the national shooting team, said: that the preparatory programme for shooter Hamed began a few weeks ago.
“After obtaining the Olympic invitation card for the Sultanate’s shooter, we had started a daily training at International Shooting Range in Ghala. We focused in different mental and physical training areas,” he added.
The national head coach affirmed that Olympic Games which are held every four years differ from any other regional and international events and championships.
“The competition in any discipline in Olympics is tough as many of the world’s top ranking athletes take part. However, Hamed Al Khatri is classified as one of the top domestic, GCC and Arab shooters. He has accumulated technical experience from the previous national, GCC, Arab, Asian and Olympics participation. Also, we hope the weather condition will be suitable for the shooters to perform well in the competitions. Wind, clouds and fog will not ease the assignment for the shooters to focus on the target goal. Our target is to break new records and show top performance that reflect the development of Oman’s shooting,” the national coach added.
Lessons to learn
Oman’s talented swimmer, Issa Al Adawi, ended his debut in the 32nd Summer Olympic Games – 2020 Tokyo as he got sixth place with a time of 51.81s in the preliminary heat of Men’s 100m freestyle competitions on Tuesday at the Tokyo Aquatics Center.
The national swimmer was assigned heat three. After completion of the nine heats, Adawi was placed at the 53rd position among the 70 competitors. The fastest qualifier among 16 swimmers into the semis was Italy’s Thomas Ceccon who registered a time of 47.71s. The cutoff of the final qualifier was 48.44s set by Great Britain’s Jacob Whittle.
Commenting post the preliminary heat action of Men’s 100m freestyle competitions, swimmer Issa Al Adawi said, “My target was to register my personal best and focus was to finish within mid of 50s. However, small technical details during the swimming competition may change a lot in the final timing. Taking many lessons from this debut in Olympics and working hard to plug the weakness will be the focus area now. I can break my personal best (51.69s) in the forthcoming championships and events including the Open swimming championship for Universities in October,” he added.
Major championships
The national head coach, Aimanal Kulaibi said that swimmer Issa has good technical skills and needs more experience besides taking part in major championships and swimming in top events.
“This Olympic participation is a good start for Issa. Strengthening some technical aspects and overcoming negative areas are two top points to consider in the coming period. Continuity of Issa’s preparatory programme in Chukyou University will assist him to develop more and we hope to accomplish the desired outcomes from the long preparatory camp in Japan,” he concluded.
Omani swimming referee in Tokyo 2020
Abdulmoneim Al Alawi, FINA open water referee, has been assigned to officiate the open water swimming competitions (swimming marathon) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He is the first Arab and Asian Chief referee to manage the competition at Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Commenting on his selection for the second successive time after debut in 2016 Rio Olympics, he said: “I had officiated in Rio Olympics as Assistant Chief referee. For Tokyo 2020 Olympics, I have been selected as Chief referee for the open water swimming competitions which will start on August 4 and 5.”
“I am very proud of this Olympic participation. Assigning an Omani referee to run these competitions is a significant indicator and evidence of the success of the Omani referee. I started officiating swimming events in 1986 and managed to get selected as umpire for more than 150 international, regional, Gulf and Arab championships and events.” I obtained the international referee badge in 1995,” he added.
