A 12-year-old Qatar-based golfer sets high goals as he wants to tee off with the very best

Twelve-year-old Daniil Sokolov, a Russian national who was born in Seoul, South Korea, was just five years old when he moved to Qatar with his parents from Tokyo, Japan.

Eldest of two siblings, he is fluent in English, French, and Russian. The fact that he speaks Arabic reasonably well makes him stand out among other student-athletes. His younger brother, Fedor Sokolov, 10, plays football in the elite Paris Saint-German Football Club (PSG) group.

From an early age, Daniil Sokolov, a grade VI student at International School of London, Doha campus, used to accompany his father, Dmitry Sokolov, a professional in energy systems who was charmed by the sport of golf during his four-year stay in South Korea.

Dmitry Sokolov, proud father of two talented young boys, told Qatar Tribune that upon arriving in Qatar, “perhaps the right time for five-year-old Daniil, supported by safe and sport environment with quality facilities, helped in exposing and developing the hidden skills of Daniil for the sport of golf”.

Daniil, said his father, has been a well-mannered boy right from his childhood, patient, with the right attitude and carrying a well matured personality for his age group, which are the prerequisites for being a golfer.

Meanwhile, paying gratitude to his father and mentor, Daniil said it was his father who from beginning guided and provided him the environment in building his confidence and grooming his hidden talent. “Right from a very young age, I got the opportunity to play on various golf courses and in different countries including Qatar, the UAE, African countries, Europe and the US, which helped me in shaping up my talent and personality,” said the 12-year-old.

Talking about his practice habits, he thanked his coach who guides him daily to refine swing and techniques. He practices five days a week, a minimum of four hours per session. He goes through minimum two competitive rounds per week.

The talented boy has been displaying his exceptional skills and garnering success from age seven in the junior golf circuit. His ability to drive the golf ball over 300 yards at such a young age is amazing and incredible.

He was recognised as the strongest non-USA 11-year-old player according to Under Armour Junior World Golf Rating; he was also chosen to All World Team of best junior golfers of his age.

He achieved an impressive 9th place in the Boys Under-12 division in summer 2022, at the IMG Academy World Junior Golf Championship in San Diego, California; he’s the winner of his age division at First Tee Miami Doral Junior Classic; and the youngest participant to finish 7th out of 120 participants in the Qatar Open Men’s Amateur Championship 2023 held at Doha Golf Club.

He will be participating at the Underrated Golf Tour 2023 presented by Stephen Curry, to take place this summer, to valuable experience against highly competitive opponents aged 12-18.

Talking about his future goals, Daniil said he wants to win a Qatar Amateur Open Championship within the next three years, and hopes to be counted among Top-10 WAGR players within next three years; and to win a professional golf by the age of 15.

Golf lovers who want to have a glimpse into his golfing skills and achievements, may visit Instagram at @daniil_sokolov_golf.

Golf: Qatar dominate at GCC Championship to retain team and individual titles

 

Qatar dominate at GCC Championship to retain team and individual titles

Saleh Al Kaabi retains individual title

Royal Golf Club, Bahrain:  Qatar and Saleh Al Kaabi retained the GCC golf championship titles after an impressive performance at the Royal Golf Club, Bahrain.

on Thursday, Al Kaabi won the individual championship, for the second successive year, at the end of the four-day championship.

In the team championship, Qatar team consisting of Al Kaabi, Ali Al Shahrani, Jaham Jassim Al Kuwari, Abdulrahman Al Shahrani finished first followed by Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait.

This is the second successive year Qatar is winning the team championship. The team was coached by Hassan Benrokiya, while Salman Al Khanji was the head of the delegation.

Nine Qatari amateur golfers to compete in Qatar Open Golf Amateur Championship

 Nine Qatari amateur golfers to compete in Qatar Open Golf Amateur Championship

Saleh Ali Al Kaabi and Ali Al Shahrani will lead Qatar’s challenge at the 37th edition of Qatar Open Golf Amateur Championship that begins at the Doha Golf Club (DGC) on Thursday.

Al Kaabi and Al Shahrani are the among the nine Qatari golfers who will lead the home charge in the three-day tournament in which a total of 126 players will be seen in action.

Al Shahrani, who is the only the second Qatari player to win the tournament, will be looking for his second title having won his first one in 2021.

The winner of the amateur event will get a chance to compete in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters 2023 scheduled for October later this year.

The list of golfers includes 77 contestants of different nationalities, who play at different clubs in Qatar while the rest have traveled to Doha to take part in the event.

Apart from a place in Qatar Masters that will be played from October 26 to 29 this year, top 10 players will receive prizes at the conclusion of the tournament.

Launching Qatar Open at a press conference, Qatar Golf Association (QGA) Deputy General-Secretary Eng. Mohammed Ibrahim Al Muhannadi said preparations have been finalised to stage the event.

“We received over 150 entries as many golfers showed keen interest in their participation but we had to restrict field to 126 players. We have given priority to the ones with lower handicaps,” Al Muhannadi told reporters at the Doha Golf Club.

“We expect a close competition in presence of some very good golfers. Some of the amateurs, who participated in the Asian Tour’s International Series Qatar, are also featuring in the tournament. The prospect of Qatar Masters entry always takes the best out of golfers in this event,” he added.

DGC General Manager Gary McGlinchey said the conditions are better for golfers than it was last month when the course staged the first edition of Asian Tour’s International Series Qatar.

“The weather is better than it was in the last event but the course will still be a test for the golfers. We are looking forward to a good action in the weekend,” he said. McGlinchey also spoke about the complimentary messages from top golfers around the world who he said, “find the refurbished Doha Golf Club course ‘tough but fair’.

He expects the Qatar Open Golf Amateur Championship to see top scores of 8 under par as it was during the recent Asian Tour International Series at this course.

Andreas Pfister, General Manager Intercontinental Doha Beach & Spa was also present for the press conference, while Mike Shoueiry, Technical Director at Qatar Golf Association compered the function.

The competing players: Salman Nasser Al Khanji , Abdulrahman Amin Al Gaoud, Tom Sweigart, Ross Mackie, Salah Hamad Al Shaer, Sam Roseman, Stuart Anderson, Varun Muthappa, Samuel Perilla, Anthony Owen, Eirashid Mohamed Hamad, Ajiboye Jacob Bolaji, Jack Tobin, Allard Bijlstra, Khaled Salem Al Aathem, Niclas Bjorkhammer (Swe), Rashid Mohamed, Robert Kidd, Jake Wiltshire, Hamad Salem Al Aathem, Jaham Jassim Al Kuwari, Dinesh Kumar, Seamus McLoughney, Myles Taylor, Kazuyuki Kiriyama,Kevin Powell, Saleh Ali Musbah Al Kaabi, Isa Ebrahim Saad,Matias Camberos, Isak Osman Bisschop, Ali Al Shahrani, Abdul Aziz AlBoainain, Mubarak Essa Al Kuwari, Nasser Yaqoob, Laurent Constanty, Husain Ahmed Salem, Rachid Akl, Andrew Saunder, Rashed Fares Al Qutami, Chris Fowlie, Shinya Shiotsuki, Omar Khalid Hussain, Michael Colclasure, Yaseen Le Falher, Ashley Rawstron, Nemr Saad, Salah Musbah Al Kaabi, Reece Goodyear, Steven Britton, Claes Byberg, Gary Barrowman, Fazal Abdul Kazi, Jonathan Devine, Huw Phillips, Kittisak Sang Orn, Kotaro Hayashi, Omar Mamlouk, Daniel Langfield, Bertrand Dumoulin, Ehsan El Amine, Michael MacDonald, Dean Morris, Daniil Sokolov, James Nash, Kenneth Flynn, Andrew Britton, Mohd Sayeed Al Kuwari, Joe Paleotti, Michael Kennedy, Calum Fitzgerald, Chris De Kock, Jarkko Antero Rantakallio, Stevie Clark, Olivier van Lelyveld, Igor Taraba, Rob Skinner, Nikhil Lakhanpal, Lorenzo Gobet, Yousif Ali Janahi, Mohamed Hamad Al Aathem, David Payne, Waqas Al Bloushi, Mathias Pedersen, Joss Lerwill, Andrew Wilmot, Miller Green, Tej Gangavarapu, Donald Yang, Paul Smith, Greg McClure, Simon Roger Davies, John McGlinchey, Luis Deya, ohammad Sharizal, Yohann Pedder, Eyhab Burki, Isa Abdulla Al Qutami, Ibrahim Mubarak, Tooraj Shadnia, Matias Freije, Abdulrahman Al-Shahrani, Dean Ball, Joe Jones, Abdulaziz Al Muhannadi , Saimie Mohiden, Christian Prambs Jr, Dominic McGlinchey, Sultan Abdullah Al Hakam, Sam Epstein, Winston Agcon, Paul Stewart, Maximillian Parsons, Phill Park, Daniel Lowe, Richard Bolton, Tim Nixon, Chris Corcelles

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Hancock and Rhode combine to shoot skeet mixed team gold

Doha: Thrilling action at the Lusail Shooting Complex continued on Wednesday as USA’s Vincent Hancock and Kimberly Rhode combined brilliantly to bag the mixed skeet event gold on the fourth day of the ongoing ISSF World Cup Shotgun - Doha 2023 championship.

Hancock, who had won the individual skeet silver medal on Tuesday, showed excellent form and along with Rhode, who claimed the individual skeet women’s gold, stood out in the qualifying and the final.

The qualifying round had ended in a tie with USA and France (Eric Delaunay & Lucie Anastassiou) scoring identical 148 before the Americans won in a shoot-off 4-3 to top the 32-team field.

Qatar’s Reem Al Sharshani and Paris 2024 Games-bound Rashid Saleh Al Athba returned a score of 140, while the second Qatari team comprising Ghulam Hajar Mohammed and Abdulaziz Al Attiyah shot 122.

The gold medal battle saw the Olympic gold winners Hancock and Rhode shoot flawless getting all the four shots in each turn for a total of 24 and 6 points. Delaunay & Anastassiou were on target 17 times failing to register any points and settling for silver.

Earlier in the bronze medal match, Italians Luigi Lodge and Diana Bacosi beat Hector Andres Flores Barahona and Francisca Chadid Crovetto of Chile 6-2.

The trap event for men and women begins on Friday and the finals on Saturday.

The mixed trap team event will also begin on Saturday.

Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti triumphs in ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Qatar

 

Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti triumphs in the ISSF Shotgun World Cup

Italy dominates skeet in Doha, Luigi Lodde 3rd

 

Rio 2016 Olympic champion Gabriele Rossetti of Italy won the individual men's skeet competition at the ISSF World Cup for Shotgun at Lusail Shooting Range on Tuesday.

 

In the four-man Medal Match, the Italian managed to break 39 of the 40 targets available (overcoming the competition from the three-time Olympic champion totem Vincent Hancock.

The American winner of the medals at the 2008, 2012, 2021 Games had to settle for second place.

Luigi Lodde finished in third place ahead of Egyptian Azmy Mehelba, who ended up fourth.

“I’m so happy. I’m so happy. It’s my first World Cup win,” Rossetti said. “I am an Olympics champion, a world champion, but I had never won the World Cup. And now I have won this also. I’m very happy,” said.

“I remember this day is very important for me because in 2018, one week after my my dad’s death, I came here. For me, Qatar is it’s a second home and I win my first World Cup here. So thank you Qatar,” the Italian, whose father Bruno bagged a bronze in the skeet event at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, added.

 

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ISSF World Cup for Shotgun: Six-time Olympic winner Rhode of USA wins skeet title in Qatar

 

ISSF World Cup for Shotgun:  Six-time Olympic winner Rhode of USA wins shoot out with compatriot Simonton to clinch women skeet title in Qatar.

Simona Scocchetti takes 3rd place in women's skeet.

Six-time Olympic winner Kimberly Rhode of USA is the most successful female shooter at the Olympics and at ISSF World Cups and the 43-year-old show glimpses of why she is so, at the ISF World Cup for Shotgun at Lusail Shooting Range on Tuesday

The three-time Olympic gold medallist kept her nerve to win a crucial shoot-out with compatriot Samantha Simonton and notch the women’s skeet title in Qatar.

The gold medal in Qatar just added to her medal collection at the ISSF World Cup competition, which reads like this…… 19 Gold, 7 Silver, and 8 Bronze medals and add to it six individual medals won at six consecutive summer Olympic games.

In the all-American gold medal shoot out in Qatar, Rhode won 6-5 against Simonton, twenty years her junior and one who was not even born when Rhode won her first Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

The shoot-out was needed to break the deadlock as both the Americans were tied at 38-38 at the end of 40 regulation targets in a throbbing final.

Rhode, who began competing in skeet at the age of 10, has had three gold medals in Olympics starting with the 1996 Games in Atlanta and again finished on top in 2012 London Games and also in 2004 Athens Games and she was in full praise for the organizers, the venue and the facilities.

“This is a wonderful arena and the competition level is so high here,” Rhode said, who besides her three Olympic Gold medals won bronze in Sydney Games, silver in Beijing and bronze in Rio.

“You have the best of the best (shooters) in the world here. The facility is incredible,” Rhode said, who is the only triple Olympic Champion and the only woman to have won two Olympic gold medals for Double Trap.
“Every detail has been well thought out not just for the athletes, but also for the referees, the coaches. I mean, it’s just amazing. So at the end of the day, you have a lot of really fantastic scores and, you know, a lot of medals being awarded. I think we can safely say that we’ll be back,” Rhode said, who after winning a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics became the first Olympian to win a medal on five different continents.

Italy’s Simona Scocchetti  finished in third spot ahead of  Irina Malovichko of Ukraine, who lost out in the medal race.

On Wednesday, March 8, the skeet specialists will be back on stage with the Mixed Team competition.

The Doha meet is the second ISSF Shotgun World Cup this year after the one in Rabat in January.

More than 450 shooters from 63 countries are vying for medals in Doha across individual and team events. The ISSF World Cup Doha will conclude on March 12.

The high-profile tournament has attracted 30 World and Olympic champions, as well as several shooters from Qatar.

 

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