Alaryani takes home win at shooting World Cup

Cockbill shot three 10.9s in the elimination stages and saw off young Swedish shooter Philip Jonsson and Ukraine’s Paralympic champion Vasyl Kovalchuk.

Paralympic silver medallist Abdulla Sultan Alaryani claimed his first win of the season on Monday (27 February), closing the World Shooting Para Sport World Cup with victory at home in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

Alaryani dominated in R7 (men’s 50m rifle three positions SH1), leading all kneeling, prone and standing rounds..

The 46-year-old really came into his own during the standing to carry his form from Rio 2016 into the new season. His score of 451.4 was just .2 lower than his Paralympic silver medal winning performance.

Alaryani pulled well clear of Slovakia’s Radoslav Malenovsky (435.6), who finished second.

Atidet Intanon (427.3) was third to add to his bronze from R1 (men’s 10m air rifle standing SH1). That rounded off a great competition for the Thai shooter, as he leaves Al Ain with his first individual World Cup medals.

Great Britain’s Ryan Cockbill was also in form in R5 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2). His score of 255.5 was a new world record after changes to the number of shots in the single position events were introduced for 2017.

Cockbill shot three 10.9s in the elimination stages and saw off young Swedish shooter Philip Jonsson and Ukraine’s Paralympic champion Vasyl Kovalchuk.

Two of those perfect scores came in the second elimination round as it appeared Cockbill would ease past his rivals.

However Jonsson (254.3) had other ideas and brought himself to within .2 of the British athlete. He maintained that position for one more round, but a slip in the fifth proved to be costly and allowed Cockbill to advance to the top of the podium with the help of another 10.9.

Kovalchuk’s (232.2) challenge ended after he lost his early lead. He settled for bronze.

The win is Cockbill’s second podium finish in Al Ain, after claiming silver in R4 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2) earlier in the competition.

Jonsson, 22, has also enjoyed a great start to the season with bronze in R4.

Full results are available at World Shooting Para Sport’s website.

The next World Shooting Para Sport World Cup will get underway in Szczecin, Poland, on 24-29 April.

Updates, pictures and videos are also available on Facebook.com/ShootingParaSport and Twitter (@ShootingPara) and Instagram (@ShootingParaSport).