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SYDNEY (AFP) - Army officer Fehaid Al Deehani grabbed a first ever Olympic medal for Kuwait here Wednesday when he won the bronze medal for the Olympic men's Double Trap.
It was also the first Arab medal of the Sydney Games five days into the 16-day long event. The 33-year-old Al Deehani made a run at Britain's Richard Faulds and Australia's Russell Mark over the final shots, but he came up short 186 to 187, with the Briton going on to take the gold in a shoot-off. "I am very happy to win Kuwait's first ever Olympic medal," Al-Deehani said. "There are not very many Kuwaiti supporters here, but the whole Kuwaiti team is here to support me." It was a third Olympics for the Kuwaiti who comes from a family steeped in the traditions of hunting. He was voted Asian athlete of the year in 1994. He finished sixth in the 1998 double trap world championships in Barcelona and won a bronze medal in the same event the following year in Tampere, Finland. His progress through the ranks was again underlined this year when he won the New Delhi leg of the World Shotgun Cup in the double trap. Al Deehani's medal comes 26 years after Kuwait first took part in the Olympics. Prior to Sydney, the best Kuwaiti performance came in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when they lifted a bronze in taekwondo, but it was only a demonstration sport at the time. At the 1980 Moscow Games, the then Asian Champions Kuwait reached the quarterfinals before crashing out. |
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