Two Oman shooters get wildcards for Rio Olympics

Muscat: Two Omani shooters, one male and one female, have been given wildcards for the 2016 Rio Olympics taking the number of confirmed participants from the Sultanate to three at the August 5-21 Games.
According to information received from the Oman Olympic Committee (OOC) on Sunday, the two Omani athletes who will be representing the Oman Shooting Association at the Games are Hamed Al Khatri and Wadha Al Balushi.
The duo will join Barakat Al Harthi as the three competing members of Omani contingent that will travel to Rio de Janeiro in August.
While Omani star sprinter booked his berth in the Rio Games by achieving a qualifying mark in the 100m competition back in 2015, Hamed Al Khatri and Wadha Al Balushi received quota places under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Tripartite Commission Invitation.
The OOC statement said: “In response to the strenuous endeavours made by Oman Olympic Committee in coordination with the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity, the Tripartite Commission of IOC’s Olympic Solidarity has finally selected our shooters Hamed Al Khatri and Wadha Al Balushi of Oman Shooting Association to take part in the shooting competitions at the 2016 Olympic Games.”
As per the rules, ‘366 quota places for the Games are entitled to the shooters, based on the results at designated ISSF supervised championships subjected to the ISSF rules from August 1, 2014 to March 31, 2016, while the remaining 24 are available to the eligible National Olympic Committees (NOCs) under the Tripartite Commission Invitation’.
“The selection of the two shooters was made on the basis that they fully satisfied the conditions of participation in the Olympic shooting competitions due to the outstanding results they achieved in the past competitions,” the OOC statement added.
Hamed Al Khatri is a special in 10m air rifle and 50m rifle events. Some of his achievements include 10m air rifle gold at the 2014 Arab Shooting Championships and 50m rifle 3 positions bronze individual and team bronze at the 2011 Pan Arab Games.
Wadha Al Balushi is a 10m air pistol and 25m pistol special. She has taken part in several international competitions, including World Championships as well as Rifle and Pistol World Cup.
Barakat Al Harthy had sealed his Olympic qualifying berth on October 6, 2015 when he won the 100m gold medal in a time of 10.16 seconds at the Military World Games in South Korea.