CyprusVista

The Cyprus Olympic team for the forthcoming Beijing games will be led by skeet shooter Georgios Achilleos. Achilleos is the world champion at the sport, and is the island’s best medal hope. Marcos Baghdatis, a finalist in the 2006 Australian Open of the same sport, is also on the team. Cyprus has a good record in the sport; the Junior Men’s Team recently set a new world record of 356, achieved in Cyprus on July 9, 2008 at the European Championships.

Skeet shooting is one of three types of competitive shotgun shooting sports, the others being trap shooting and sporting clays (or clay pigeons). Competitors shoot at clay disks hurled into the air at various angles within a field of 180 degrees. In Olympic skeet shooting, the clay discs are 100mm in diameter, smaller than the average dinner plate, and just 25 mm thick. Hitting them takes a great deal of skill, timing and mental awareness, not to mention accuracy with a double-barreled shotgun or similar.

International skeet shooting has been an Olympic sport since 1968. Such is the popularity of the sport in Cyprus that there are five shooting clubs, including the Nicosia club with its Olympic shooting range. If you would like to shoot while on your holiday in Cyprus, you can discover more at the Cyprus Shooting Sport Federation website at cssf-shooting.org.

And finally… When the sport was first invented back in 1915, it was known as clock shooting. The original USA course involved traps that shot across a complete circle, but this had to stop when a chicken farm was set up next door to the original range…

Photo of skeet shooting by maverick2003 at flickr.com

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