Eighteen-year-old Amber Hill is going home with a “big fat” gold medal around her neck. “One hell of a way to start my season,” Hill said yesterday after starting off from right where she finished last year.
The British shooter had finished 2015 on a high by winning a gold at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup Final in Nicosia defeating Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit. Yesterday, she started her new season beating the Thai shooter in the skeet final of the Qatar Open Shotgun Championship.
In the final at the Lusail Shooting Range, Hill was the first to miss a shot, but came back strongly to beat Jiewchaloemmit 15-12. The Briton had finished the qualification round with 71, one shot behind Jiewchaloemmit.
“I feel amazing to win gold today. I ended last season on a high. And after the winter break, I think I have come up great with the win. I hope this will be my year,” the European champion said.
The Bracknell resident had won gold at Baku 2015 European Games last June to seal an Olympic spot.
Commenting on her final round, Hill said: “That’s the thing about the final; you could miss early on but it hardly matters where you missed. It’s all about the hard work that you put in throughout the rounds.”
Member of Rio-bound Great Britain team, Hill is confident of a good debut in Brazil, but is cautious in her approach.
“I think my technique is getting stronger and stronger, and I am feeling confident in a very important year of my career. Lots of big events are coming for me… few World Cups and I have also qualified for Rio. This win is in the lead-up to the Games, but I am taking one step at a time,” she said.
“I’ve never been to Brazil and I’m really looking forward to it. I really like the sun so I wasn’t complaining about it and now I can’t wait to get some Rio sun,” she said.
Discussing the conditions here, she said: “I was here two years ago also. I loved the place and the range… Just the country itself is very good…Weather is better here as compared to England where it keeps raining most of the time. Hopefully I will be back next year also.”
Jiewchaloemmit sounded a bit disappointed after finishing second to Hill again.
“I had my chance as Amber missed first, but I couldn’t capitalise on that. It happens; sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. It is always nice to win gold, but I am satisfied with silver around my neck,” the Thai said after the podium ceremony.
Talking about Rio Games, she said: “It is a challenge for me. It’s very difficult for me to plan things for Rio as it’s is far away from Thailand… almost across half the world. Mostly I will stay in Thailand, my home and train. I must go to Brazil at least 10 days prior to the game to get acclimatised to the conditions considering the time zones, but I am not aware about the training facilities over there.”
Argentina’s Melisa Gil won the bronze defeating 25-year-old Polish shooter Aleksandra Jarmolinska, while Qatar’s Reem al-Sharshani finished 11th with a total score of 68.



^{Dutch shooter Esmee van der Veen (left) clicks a selfie with junior skeet winner Sarah Mohamed
(centre) of Qatar and bronze medal winner Hajar Mohamed of Qatar.}


Qatar girls dominated the junior section in skeet as Sarah Mohamed and her sister Hajar Mohamed claimed gold and bronze, respectively.
“It was great. It’s been a long time since I got the first... I am happy. Last year, I could not do anything worthwhile in this competition and this year I finished first. So, I feel nice. It was a tough competition as all the shooters were of top class,” Sarah said.
Talking about her sister’s bronze, she said, “Yes, I am happy for her also,” she said.
For her part, Hajar said, “I am happy to finish third. I think I can score better, but in the end it was a good experience of competing against world class shooters.”
Hajar was all praise for Sarah. “She was perfect today.”

^{Qatar Shooting and Archery Association board member Fatima Salem al-Jassiman (left) with
the winners of the women’s skeet competition yesterday. Amber Hill (centre) won ahead
of Thailand’s Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit (second from left), while Argentina’s Melisa Gil won bronze.}

The silver went to Esmee van der Veen of the Netherlands, while Qatar’s Lolwa al-Mulla finished fourth.
The first three qualifying rounds of men’s skeet were also held yesterday in which, Qatar’s London Olympics bronze medallist Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah, Rashid Saleh Hamad, Valeriy Shomin and Hussain Ahmed Mohamed all scored perfect 50.
“It is nice to get a perfect score at the end of first two rounds of the qualifying. The start has been good. I hope I will continue in the same vein in the next rounds and qualify for the final round,” al-Attiyah said.
Al-Attiyah, who is fancying his chances to go for his six Olympics, finished 12 in the last Asian qualifying round earlier in the month. Rashid secured the Olympic quota by finishing fifth.
Al-Attiyah said he was working to improve his technique.
“After the Delhi event, I worked on my technique. Even if you are a senior pro, sometimes flaws creep into your technique, which needs fine tuning. I did that after the India event,” the 45-year-old said.
The remaining two rounds, semifinals and final will be held today.