8:00am Saturday 14th November 2009
By Ky Capel
SOUTHERN Counties Shooting ground near Dorchester is counting down the days until it plays host to the World Shotgun Cup.
The Dorset venue will stage the first qualifying event for the London 2012 Olympics between May 11 and 20 of next year – the first time the United Kingdom has ever held a Shotgun World Cup.
Over 650 competitors from 85 countries will be represented at the event, which has been chosen by the ISSF General Assembly as one of four Shotgun World Cups in 2010.
The week long competition, ranked only behind the World Championships and Olympic Games in importance, will mark the start of qualification for London 2012, with one Olympic quota place available per discipline.
The Dorset-based event will have the three Olympic shotgun disciplines of skeet, trap and double trap and will mirror the Olympic shotgun programme, with skeet and trap competition for men and women and double trap for the men.
Sharp shooter Peter Wilson, who lives near Sherborne and is ranked the number one double trap competitor in Great Britain, is looking forward to the event.
He said: “This venue is my local ground. I only live 15 minutes away so it couldn’t be better. There won’t be very much missing here and spectators will see the very best in the world.
“They’ll get the chance to meet the best in the business which is a rare opportunity because this doesn’t happen every year. This is the best ground in England now, and it’s quite rightly got a World Cup event.”
Keith Murray of the ISSF technical committee said: “We held an event here in 1977, so it’s about time we held another one. I’ve been keeping a close eye on improvements made since then and it’s now well placed to stage a World Cup event.”
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