UAE, India win historic medals

Ahmed al-Maktoum entered the Olympic record books as the first ever medallist from the United Arab Emirates when he blasted to men's double trap shooting gold yesterday.

At the same time, Indian army major Rajyavardhan Rathore held his nerve and finished second for that country's first ever individual Olympic silver medal. China's Zheng Wang collected bronze.

Malta's William Chetcuti just missed out on a berth in the final of the competition after missing a clay in a shootoff which determined the sixth finalist. The 19-year-old Maltese placed ninth overall.

At the end of the qualifying round, Chetcuti was tied in sixth place with four other shooters on 134 clays after scores of 43, 44 and 47 in the first three 50-clay rounds.

Here, Chetcuti's direct rivals for the remaining slot in the six-man final were Italy's Daniele Di Spigno, Vitali Fokeev of Russia, Fehaid Aldeehani of Kuwait and Chinese Binyuan Hu.

Chetcuti and Fokeev were the first to be eliminated followed by Aldeehani. Di Spigno and Hu remained locked in a neck-and-neck race after 10 clays but in the end it was the Chinese who progressed to the final which confirmed al-Maktoum's deserved triumph.

A member of Dubai's ruling al-Maktoum family and a former national squash champion, the UAE shooter's final tally of 189 points equalled the Olympic record set by Australian Mark Russell at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Al-Maktoum's accuracy was astonishing as he blasted into the final with an Olympic qualifying record score of 144 points, six clear of Sweden's Hakan Dahlby.

Al-Maktoum set a world record-equalling standard until, with the title effectively in the bag and a comfortable lead to cushion him, his aim wavered.

He missed one target and then more as errors crept in, his achievement seemingly playing on his mind as the competition came to a conclusion with al-Maktoum hugging his coach and wrapped in his national flag.

"For the last 10 shots I would say it didn't matter what the score was," he said. "I was enjoying it without any pressure, it was relaxing."

"It was his day. We couldn't catch him... he was absolutely far ahead," said Rathore, who entered the final stages in fifth place but closed everything out of his mind to go for the medal.

Briton Richard Faulds, the reigning champion, failed to qualify for the final. He managed to score only the 13th equal best tally in the qualifying session at the hilltop Markopoulo shooting centre.