Published on 27 Apr 2015

Saif Bin Futtais claims Skeet Men Gold and Rio 2016 quota on day-2 of Larnaca's world cup

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Marco Dalla Dea

UAE's flag bearer won three shoot-offs on his way to the highest step of the podium, beating Sweden's Marcus Svensson in the gold medal match.

Saif Bin Futtais of the United Arab Emirates (41) won today's Skeet Men final on day 2 of the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca, Cyprus.

The 41-year old shooter beat Sweden's Marcus Svensson 4 to 3 hits in a shoot-off for Gold as the two tied with 14 targets at the end of the gold medal match.

 

Bin Futtais actually shot his way to the podium passing through three different shoot-offs. First he qualified for the final with 122+2 hits, making it through a four-way tie-breaker. After hitting 15 targets in the semi-final, he walked into the gold medal match by winning a shoot-off against Great Britain's first-time finalist Jeremy Harry Bird (25) with a score of 2 to 1 hits. Finally, after scoring 14 targets in the medal match, the last shoot-off against Svensson gave him the brightest medal and an Olympic quota place.

 

“The highlight of the day is the Rio 2016 Olympic quota place. This is very important both for me and for my country.” The winner said. “Then it comes the world cup Gold, which is a nice achievement.”

 

“Everybody is working really hard to secure a qualification spot for Rio, and I have been training a lot to finish atop of today's podium. I am not guaranteed a spot in the Olympic team, as we have a national selection, but at least we have a quota now.”

 

“The competition has been tough. When I made it into the Gold medal match, I was guaranteed a quota place. In that moment I relaxed and shot at my best.” Continued Bin Futtais. “I have to admit that I have been a bit lucky in the shoot-offs, going through the match, but that's part of the game.”

 

The 2007 and 2009 ISSF world championship junior silver medallist Marcus Svensson of Sweden (25) pocketed the Silver medal and the second Rio 2016 quota place up for grabs at today's final.

 

The young athlete qualified with 123 hits, and then cleared the semi-final with a perfect score of 16 hits. But missing two targets in the gold medal match and then a clay in his second shoot-off double placed him on the second step of the podium.

 

Anton Astakhov of the Russian Federation (27), participating in his first ISSF world cup final round today, secured the Bronze medal beating Great Britain's Jeremy Harry Bird (25) by 13 to 12 hits in the Bronze medal match as the British shooter missed his very last target.

 

Today's final turned into a disappointing match for Cyprus' medal hope Georgios Achilleos (34), who placed in fifth missing the Rio 2016 qualification spot that he has been chasing since last year's ISSF World Championship.

 

Achilleos shot a marvellous competition, and qualified for the final with a perfect score of 125 hits out of 125 targets, equalling the world record established by Italy's Valerio Luchini at last year's ISSF world cup in Beijing (CHN). After hitting all the targets throughout the two-day competition, he missed two crucial clays during the semi-final - on station four and five – ending up with a score of 14 hits. That landed him into a shoot-off against Astakhov, who won the tie-breaker with 6 hits to Achilleos' 5, leaving the Cypriot athlete in fifth place.

 

The 2013 ISSF World Champion Jesper Hansen of Denmark (34), who had won a world cup's Silver in Al Ain last March, followed Achilleos placing in sixth with a semi-final score of 13 hits.

 

The 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca, Cyprus, will continue tomorrow with the Double Trap Men's pre-event training. The next medal match, the men's double trap final, will take place the day after tomorrow, on the 29th of April, at 16.30 (Cyprus time, EEST). The final will be broadcasted live on www.issf-sports.org