Dana Saad Al Mubarak with her gold medal
Dana Saad Al Mubarak kept her nerve in crucial moments of a tightly-contested women’s 25m pistol final to help Qatar win their first gold at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku yesterday.
Qatar now have so far won three medals at the Games, two bronze and one gold, all of which have come in shooting.
The Qatari sharpshooter, who took to shooting in 2010 and trains under the watchful eyes of coach Marina Solodovnikova finished fifth in the qualification rounds but came back strongly in the final rounds.
Dana came up with a more consistent display in the medal rounds, finishing with 28 points ahead of Iran's Haniyeh Rostamiyan on 23.
Three-time African champion Olfa Cherni of Tunisia stumbled in the final rounds, but still managed to hold on to the bronze medal.
The 24-year-old, who excelled at various GCC events for the last four years picking up many medals, topped the field which consisted of home shooter Irada Ashumova, who bagged a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Ashumova came up with a disappointing show and fell short of a podium finish.
Earlier yesterday, Nasser Ali Al Hemaidi of Qatar bagged the second bronze for Qatar at the Games.
The 31-year-old finished third in the men’s trap event behind Turkey's Orguzhan Tuzun, who took the silver medal.
Ahmed Kamar of Egypt took gold with perfect score in the final rounds.
Kamar hit an impressive 25 consecutive targets to leapfrog into first place and he never let go of his leadership, finishing with an impressive 42 points, three more than Tuzan, who had to settle for second place.
Al Hemaidi shot down 33 clay targets in the final round.
On Saturday, Qatar opened their medals account with Kholoud Hassan Al Khalaf winning the first medal for Qatar at the Games.
She won bronze in the trap shooting competition, winning third place overcoming stiff competition from several world champions who were in the fray.
World champion Nihan Gurer of Turkey took gold from the event. She finished with 41 points, four more than second-placed Shafag Amrahova of Azerbaijan. Al Khalaf settled for the bronze a further eight points adrift.
Over 3000 athletes from 54 countries are participating at the 11-day Games, which end on May 22.
