(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Rookie Vasiliy Struchayev of Kazakhstan overcame tough weather conditions to pull off a major surprise at the Qatar Open Shotgun championship.
Henrik Jansson of Sweden finished second while Qatar's Saeed Abusharib clinched the bronze.
Qatar's ace shooter Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah was among the six shooters who qualified from the preliminary stage for the final rounds.
Nasser lost the race to qualify for the bronze medal shoot-out eventually finishing fifth, while compatriot Hamad Rashid Saleh came fourth.
The iconic star from Qatar, who is also an accomplished raly driver having won the Dakar Rally twice was happy with his scores after picking hte gun after along absence.
"I am quite happy shooting 120-125 targets without any training. I am taking part in the event after a long time and considering the championship is being played with new rules I think I performed well today," Nasser said.
For the London Games bronze medallist the last shooting event he took part was the Asian Games in Incheon South Korea last year, where he drew a blank.
"The conditions were very windy, but it was ok as it was the same for everybody. I will soon start training for world cup which will be held next month in Al Ain and the world championship in September in Italy," he said.
Shooting down the clay targets was not easy on a windy day but Struchayev rode his luck to clinch gold.
"I am thrilled to win gold here. This is first major win of my career," said an excited Struchayev.
The 22-year-old, hereto a regular competitor on the junior circuit, yesterday stamped his superiority to win the Skeet event at the Losail shooting Complex, thus proving that he has come of age.
Struchayev, who won a bronze medal at the Asian Shooting Championship, at the same venue three years back in a junior event, thus clinched his first gold in the senior category. Swede Jansson said the conditions were tough and give full credit to Struchayev for his brilliant show.
"It was tough conditions here and the field had some top shooters. Vassiliy was shooting superbly, but I am not disappointed with my performance also," Jansson said.
Meanwhile Qatar's Mohammed Al Kuwari won in the junior category. David Pochivalov of Kazakhstan came second while Niyaz Aghazada of Azerbaijan clinched bronze.
Al Kuwari, who trains under his father Ahmed Al Kuwari, was delighted with his first gold medal in a major event.
"I tried to do my best and I'm very delighted to win the title here. I'd to fight hard with other shooters from not only from Qatar, but also from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and the Great Britain. I had a good start of 50 out of 50 and then I just hung on to make sure I have the best total," Al Kuwari, a first year student at Qatar University first year said.
On Friday in the Women's Skeet event, the Russians made it one-two as Albina Shakirova topped followed by Olga Panarina.
Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand bagged the bronze medal. In the Junior section, Hajar Mohammed of Qatar came out with flying colours to win the gold followed by Sevda Mustafayeva of Azerbaijan, while Olga Khailova of Kazakhstan came third. The championship ends on February 19. Around 250 shooters from 33 countries are taking part in the championship.
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