UAE shooter Tahlak feels ‘inspired’ from Youth Games experience

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  • Golden girl: Switzerland's Sarah Hornung (l) took gold in the 10m air rifle action in Nanjing yesterday while the UAE's Yamin Tahlak was placed 15th.

    UAE shooter Yasmin Tahlak admits she felt outclassed in yesterday’s 10m air rifle competition but believes she’s gaining invaluable experience at the ongoing Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China.

    The 18-year-old, who trains at the Sharjah Ladies Club, placed 15th amongst 20 shooters in yesterday’s qualification round after scoring a total of 404.8 points.

    The top eight shooters in qualifying moved on to the final, which was won by Switzerland’s Sarah Hornung, who had also topped the preliminaries with a total of 416.4. 

    Singapore’s Martina Lindsay Veloso grabbed the silver medal, while Germany’s Julia Budde completed the podium.

    “The experience was really useful today,” Tahlak told Sport360°. “It was great to be shooting with such strong and experienced shooters.

    “The shooters that were shooting today were, I can say, more qualified because I don’t travel abroad much for competitions like they do. This helped them to get high scores.

    “And for me unfortunately I didn’t shoot well – I am not satisfied with my score today.”

    Tahlak, who had qualified to the Youth Olympics by virtue of her 10th place finish in the Asian Youth Games at the same venue last year, still has a chance to redeem herself in a second event she is participating in – the international mix competition, which is scheduled for Friday 22nd.

    “Because I haven’t been shooting a lot abroad I didn’t get the chance to shoot in competitions and get that competitive feeling,” said Tahlak.

    “So I was nervous of course and this affected me a lot. I hope I can shoot well in my next event in a couple of days.

    Irrespective of her results, Tahlak says taking part in the Games has inspired her to work harder and gave her an understanding of what kind of level she can aspire to reach.

    “Of course I’m inspired because I saw how it feels to win a medal on the faces of those who won it today or even those who didn’t win but got the chance to enter the finals,” added the Emirati teenager.

    “I could see their happiness and how proud they were. I want to get that feeling and make my parents and country proud. With hard work I can do it. 

    Meanwhile in sailing, UAE’s Hamad Al Hammadi was unable to improve on his results from opening day as he finished last in Race 3 and 27th in Race 4 in the Byte CII competition (one person dinghy).

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