From August 9 to 12, 2007, the Open Sport Cup of Belarus in trap shooting took place in Minsk Sporting Club. Athletes competed in two "Olympic" disciplines - "Skit" and "Trap", as well as in "Compact Sporting". These competitions became truly unique - several of the strongest shooters in the world fought for the victory, including Olympic champions and Sheikh from the United Arab Emirates - His Highness Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum.
The Belarus Open Cup was held in Minsk for the fifth time. Each year, these competitions are of increasing interest among shooters. This year about 160 shooters from 10 countries took part in the competition. For the first time in the history of the Cup, the geography of the participants was so wide. Athletes from neighboring countries come to Belarus with pleasure, snipers from very exotic countries also appear. So, Cypriot shooters often visit here, and last year the UAE representative Seyf Fetai "paved the way to Minsk", who managed to take first place in the "Skit" discipline (shooting at a round stand).
Apparently, Seif's story about the competitions impressed his colleagues in the United Arab Emirates team so much that this year a whole team of seven shooters arrived to take part in the competition, headed by Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum. By the way, the sheikh is a fairly well-known shooter and today takes 18th place in the world ranking of the discipline "Skeet".
Despite the fact that there was plenty of work for journalists, the Olympic champion of Sydney 2000 Daina Gudzinjaviciute (Lithuania), the current world champion Estonian Andrei Ineshin, the champion of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Russian Alexei Alipov, and one of the leaders arrived to participate in the competition Russian team Valery Shomin, who has very real chances to climb the podium at the Beijing Olympics, it was Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum who became a real find for the writing and filming fraternity. Almost all the questions at the traditional press conference before the opening of the tournament were addressed to him. By the way, the sheikh turned out to be very sociable, and, noting a steady light of curiosity in the eyes of the journalists, announced at the end of the press conference that he was ready to answer all questions privately. Direct communication with Saeed Al Maktoum lasted almost longer than the press conference itself ...
The press was interested in literally everything - from the guest’s menu to his marital status and results at the shooting range. As it turned out, the sheikh has been engaged in shooting since 1995, although for the first time he took up arms in his childhood: in the sheikh's family, shooting is one of his favorite hobbies. By the way, Said Al Maktoum prefers to “hunt” more on clay plates than on live game. Regarding athletic performance, he is most proud of his victory at the 2003 Asian Games in India. Then the sheikh managed to hit 125 targets from 125! At the last Asian Games in 2006, he took second place.
In Minsk, Sheikh Said Al Maktoum, who was loved by the audience, performed in the Skit discipline. The Belarusian athlete Andrei Gerashchenko in the same discipline really claimed to be in the finals. Unfortunately, Andrei didn’t have enough just a little - he made only 1 miss more than Ronaldas Racinskas (the Lithuanian played both in Compact Sporting and Skeet) and lost the coveted sixth place to him.
The final turned out to be more than tense - the athletes missed very rarely, and every mistake could cost the arrow places on the podium. As a result, the Russian Valery Shomin, having missed only once, won first place, but the fate of the second was decided by a “shootout": the Emirate Sheikh Said Al Maktoum against the Latvian Boris Timofeev. Both athletes performed the first approach impeccably. But during the second Boris Timofeev missed ... A guest from the United Arab Emirates, who took second place, was honored as if he were a winner!
A little later, the awarding ceremony took place, smoothly turning into an interview with winners and winners. And again, the sheikh was especially popular, who, despite being tired, did not refuse a single journalist in the conversation. He said that he was very pleased with the result of the competition. After all, as it turned out, Said Al Maktoum was traveling to Belarus, first of all, in order to promote booth shooting and try his hand at competing with the best shooters in the world (however, in our opinion, the sheikh himself also enters this cohort). And it turned out that he became a prize winner, almost reaching the “gold” and leaving behind the world champion Andrei Ineshin, who took fifth place!
In parting, Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum praised the level of organization of the competitions held in Minsk. According to him, the competition was held at the "highest level", because in Belarus "there are people who know how to organize the competition." According to the sheikh, Belarus has every chance to get the World Cup in 2009. "All that is needed is to bring representatives of the International Rifle Union to the Sporting Club and just show them the club," said Said al Maktoum. “It would be great if one of the stages of the World Cup were held in Minsk,” he added.
