The second round of qualification for the men’s skeet event will be held later today where India will be represented by Mairaj Ahmad Khan, who finished 10th on Day 1 after squandering off an excellent start. The Indian shotgun shooter may have an outside chance at a podium finish. Hence, we should be supporting the shooter when he takes to the range today. Skeet shooting event consists of shooters having to shoot on eight different stations to hit doubles of orange clay targets which are thrown from two houses that are located at the left and right end of the range.
Every shooter has to shoot a total of 125 targets which are divided into five rounds of 25 targets each. The top six shooters from the qualification round qualify for the semi-final round where they have to shoot 16 shots to get to the final round. The event will be broken into two days of qualifying. The first round, which took place yesterday, featured 75 shots in total.
Day two of the event will feature the second round of qualifying with 50 more shots and the finals. Here is everything you need to know about the where you can follow the event:
Live Telecast
Channel: Star Sports Network (Only finals)
Live Stream: starsports.com and Hotstar app (Only finals)
Date and Time: Saturday, 13th August 2016 – 12:30 GMT (18:00 IST)
Venue: National Shooting Centre, Deodoro, Rio De Janeiro.
You can follow live updates at: www.sportskeeda.com
Also Read: Rio Olympics 2016: All you need to know about the Skeet event
Indians participating:
Mairaj Ahmad Khan: India will have its 40-year old experienced shotgun shooter in Mairaj Ahmed Khan who will participate in the men’s event. He is currently ranked 10th in the world in this event and will be looking to give his best at the Games. If Khan’s recent performances are anything to go by, then India should expect a medal from the shooter as he had recently won the silver medal at the ISSF World Cup held in Rio De Janeiro.
Also Read: Rio Olympics 2016: Analysing Mairaj Ahmad Khan's chances of a medal
Shooters to function watch out for:
Vincent Hancock (USA): The 27-year old is a double gold medalist in the men’s skeet competition as he has taken the biggest prize at Beijing 2008 and also London 2012. Therefore, we are rating him highly for this event as he can create history by getting a hat-trick of gold medals. However, his recent form has not been great as he has won only won two gold medals at the ISSF World Cups in 2015. The shooter has had a disappointing 2016 as he has managed only two bronze medals.
Azmy Mehelba (Egypt): The Egyptian has been ranked number three in the world ahead of the Olympic Games. Therefore, the 26-year old might spring a surprise later on tonight. The shooter had won a silver medal in the 2016 ISSF World Cup held in Baku in the same event. He must be raring to go in what is going to be his second Olympic Games appearance. The shooter did not have the best of debuts when he finished 34th in the London Olympics.
Tammaro Cassandro (Italy): The 23-year old is the top-ranked shooter in the world at such a young age. The Italian has regularly finished inside the top three in the ISSF World Cups in the past two years but has failed to win the gold medal as he has won the silver medal once and the bronze medal twice. Therefore, he will look to create an impact going into his first Olympic Games in Rio.
