Best Student Shooters meet in the Garden City
The 5th World University Shooting Sports Championship took place in Al-Ain from 8 to12 October. This event, the inaugural FISU Championship for the United Arab Emirates, received close to 300 participants from 28 countries, competing for the pistol, rifle and shotgun shooting World University titles.
The welcoming city of Al-Ain, known as the Garden City due to its extraordinary greenery, is home to the main federal university in the UAE, the United Arab Emirates University – being therefore the ideal location for a university sport competition. The Opening Ceremony was held at the impressive “Crescent Building” at the UAE University Maqam Campus.
Delegates from the participating countries heard an inspirational inaugural speech from His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan who welcomed all delegates to this important event for UAE, emphasizing the popularity of the sport in the country. He equally expressed his delight that the world’s best young men and women student shooters would be exhibiting their strength, stamina, coordination, patience, technical competence, safe practices and phenomenal accuracy at the World University Shooting Sports Championship.
The competitions took place at the Al-Ain Equestrian, Shooting and Golf club, where the 17 World University Championship individual shotgun, pistol and rifle titles were up for grabs. Competitions ran from Wednesday to Sunday, with 15 different countries winning medals. Italy was the best country overall, taking 15 medals (6 gold, 6 silver, 3 bronze), closely followed by France (6-5-3), Poland (5-1-2), Korea (4-3-6), Germany (4-1-2) and the Czech Republic (3-5-2).