Shooting stars aim for glory in Melbourne

Commonwealth Games - Melbourne 2006

A star-studded line-up of Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions heads the Australian shooting team for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games announced in Melbourne on Sunday.

Olympic champions Susie Balogh, Michael Diamond and Russell Mark head the 29 strong team.

The team contains husband and wife duo Lauryn and Russell Mark, brothers Clive and George Barton and pistol competitor Lalita Yauhleuskaya who collected three gold medals in Manchester and will attempt a repeat performance in Melbourne.

Victorian rifle shooter Kim Frazer who won the 50m rifle prone singles in Manchester and gets the chance to continue her success in front of a home crowd.

Lauryn Mark collected two gold medals for Australia in Manchester (single and pairs skeet) and returns to competition just four months after the birth of daughter Sierra. Lauryn will once again combine with Natalia Rahman in the pairs skeet. Husband Russell, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic trap gold medallist, also returns after a hiatus from the sport in what he hopes will be a successful swansong in Melbourne.

Dual Olympic champion Diamond, will hope to win his third consecutive trap title following victories in 1998 and 2002. In Manchester he combined with Adam Vella to win the pairs, the duo returning to defend the title in Melbourne.

Balogh, from Orange and based in Queanbeyan, will get the chance to go one place better than her silver medal winning effort from Manchester in 2002.

Shooting was first included on the Games programme in 1966, and with the exception of the first Edinburgh Games in 1970, has remained ever since. Initially the events were conducted on an open individual basis, until pairs were introduced in 1982 and separate competition for women in 1994. The specific events included in each Games have varied considerably over the years. The full-bore rifle is not included on the Olympic programme, making its Commonwealth Games presence even more significant.

Whilst Australia did not enjoy a lot of early success, this has changed considerably in recent years, to the point where Australia collected 11 gold, 13 silver and six bronze medals in Manchester in 2002. Main rival, India managed to take home three more golds, but Australia triumphed overall by six medals. England, Canada and South Africa were also prominent in the final medal tally.

One interesting opponent for the Australian’s will be the grandson of Welsh singing superstar Tom Jones. Alex Woodward, 22, will represent Wales at Games in the full bore shooting event.

In all, 40 gold medals will be up for grabs in Melbourne across the four disciplines - clay target (12), full bore rifle (2), pistol (14) and small bore and air rifle (12). Shooting competition at the Games will be conducted at three different venues, with the full-bore shoot being one of the events hosted in regional Victoria - at the Wellsford Range in Bendigo. The clay target events will be contested at the Melbourne Gun Club at Lilydale, whilst both the pistol and small-bore rifle competitions will be hosted in the city at the Melbourne International Shooting Club.

Australian Commonwealth Games CEO Perry Crosswhite said the expectations for the shooting team where high.

“Traditionally our shooters are our third highest medal winners in the Australian team behind swimming and athletics. When you look at the quality and experience of the competitors selected in the team for Melbourne we can be confident the team will go close to surpassing the 30 medals they collected in Manchester.”

Australian Shooting Team:

Note: The final member of the team (pistol) will be announced next week.