GUNNING FOR GLORY

Kuwait shooting academy trains the champs of the future

The Gulf’s long tradition of hunting has been a significant factor in most of the few occasions that the region has featured in Olympics medal tables.

Kuwait’s Fehaid Al Deehani won his country’s first ever Olympic medal in Sydney in 2000, taking bronze in the men's Double Trap. And the UAE’s Sheikh Ahmed bin Hasher Al Maktoum took gold in the same event in Athens four years later.

Now, world-class competitive shooting facilities in Kuwait are creating unprecedented opportunities for Gulf marksmen.

The Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Ranges Complex, celebrating its first anniversary, has been designed to be the Gulf’s best venue for sport shooting.

The complex is regarded as the world’s most advanced of its kind after the Beijing Olympic Complex. It has been built in compliance with Olympic specifications and fully matches the requirements of the International Olympic Committee and International Shooting Federation, and covers a site of more than 50,000 square metres.

As well as the main building, there are 19 facilities that can host all events up to world championships, with six shooting ranges for every target – skeet, trap, and double trap – as well as three pistol and rifle shooting ranges for 10m, 25m, and 50m.

The main stage is complemented by hotels, function halls, social club, huge media centre, Olympic-size swimming pool, health club, ceremonies hall, staff residence block, and storage space.

Design of the shooting ranges was by a specialist Swiss company, and equipment for pistol and air rifle shooting was also imported from Switzerland. Trap and skeet equipment was brought from Italy. Construction took about three years at a total cost of roughly $27 million.

The complex is the realisation of a long-held vision for Kuwait’s Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Homoud Al-Sabah, president of the Kuwaiti and Asian Shooting Sport Federations and known as ‘The Golden Chevalier of Shooting Sport’.

“Shooting is the sport of fathers and grandfathers, it teaches us patience and persistence,” he says. “And I wanted to make shooting‘s aficionados – not only in Kuwait but in all Arab world countries – feel that they have an integrated destination which could help them to enhance and develop their skills, learn the latest methods, and practise shooting in all its various levels and tools.

  “There is no progress for any sport without its basics, and the most important among them is the environment, or the ranges, where the preparations and theoretical, physical, technical, and psychological trainings are carried out. To organise the competitions, prepare an international champion… this has been always our target and ambition”.

A member of the Kuwaiti royal family, competitive shooting is in Sheikh Salman’s blood. He took up the sport in 1975 when he joined the Chivalry Club to hone his skills. He went on to represent his country in many local and international championships over a 20-year competitive career.

He became president of the Kuwaiti Shooting Club in 1995 and has since been almost single-handedly responsible for nurturing a generation of top-quality Kuwaiti shottists, among them Olympic medalist Fehaid Al Deehani, and world champions Hamad Al-Afasi and Khaled Al-Mudhaf.

Shaikh Salman has been president of the Asian Shooting Federation since 2004 and is also an executive member of the International Shooting Federation. His deep interest in sport and youth development led to the establishment of the Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Ranges Complex, named after HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber, father and founder of sport shooting in Kuwait.

While pursuing a successful career in the Crown Prince and Prime Minister’s office, and being of member of Kuwait’s national council, his passion for shooting has remained undiminished.

“Our Arab world in general and Gulf states in particular are crowded with so much talents which make this sport qualified to be the first in terms of attained achievements,” he says. “This was proved first by Kuwait at the Olympic Games in Sydney and then repeated proudly by the UAE in Athens.”

Sheikh Salman has always concentrated on developing the sport in Kuwait, adopting new methods and concepts to establish its popularity and the competitive skills of participants. Taking office as president of Asian Shooting Sport Federation in 2004 was a logical step, recognising his contribution to the sport in the Gulf and Arab and Asian countries. He was returned for a second term in 2007 and will continue as president until 2011.