Faulds shoulders the burden of expectation

Olympic Games: SPORT-BY-SPORT GUIDE No 15: SHOOTING

Britain has a good Olympic shooting record based largely on Malcolm Cooper who won gold medals in both Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 in the small-bore rifle (three-position) event. Alister Allan also took bronze and silver in the same two games.

However, at Barcelona in 1992 the British team were disappointing. The best performance came from Andy Austin, who reached the semi-final of the skeet event. Allan, who had been expected to emulate his previous medal efforts, finished 43rd in the prone event and 38th in the small bore rifle (three-position) event.

A total of five Britons have qualified for Atlanta. Richard Faulds, 19, is the youngest of the party, but has probably the best chance of a medal in the double trap event. He was the 1993, '94 and '95 clay pigeon shooting junior world champion. He has since changed to the double trap and won a bronze in the 1995 European Championships.

"Richard is more than capable of winning gold," Roger Peace, the team manager, said, "he's got lots of potential and I'm sure that if he doesn't come good this time, he'll definitely be in the medal hunt at Sydney for the 2000 Games.

"The main dangers for us at Atlanta will be the Italians, the Americans and the Australians. There's also the Chinese to worry about, they're a bit of an unknown quantity."

GREAT BRITAIN: P Boden (trap); K Gill.(trap and double trap); R Faulds (double trap); J Stern (prone); C Page (air pistol and sports pistol).

Tom Chesshyre