Shooting Test Shows Sport 'On Target' for Games

(ATR) International Shooting Sports Federation vice-president Gary Anderson tells Around the Rings more construction work must be done to finalize the Olympic shooting center.

The ISSF is holding a World Cup stop in Rio de Janeiro from April 14-25, which will serve as the test event for the sport. Anderson was quick to say the organization of the event was top notch, but more construction was expected to be done ahead of the event.

"We’ve had some struggles to get everything ready, as you can see the finals range construction has not progressed to where we would like," Anderson said to ATR.

"The rest of the venue is in quite good shape now. Overall compared with previous Olympics we’re on target. The biggest thing is to get the finals hall finished; there is a lot of work to be done,"

Currently, according to venue management director Gustavo Nascimento there are 200 temporary seats accompanying the finals hall at the venue. During Games time the room is expected to host 2,000 total spectators, accredited media, and production personel.

For athletes who competed in the finals hall, the venue seemed Olympic ready, but needed a proper ventilation system. Both Daria Vdovina, from Russia, and Li Du, from China, said to ATR the heat was noticeable during their women’s 10m air rifle final. Du won the World Cup gold medal, while Vdovina took home silver.

"I hope the organizing committee will do everything they can for the Olympics," Vdovina said. "I hope they put in some more ventilation."

Du said that overall she liked the venue, and hoped changes would be made come August when she would be "very happy to compete here" again.

Anderson said that there are plans to get the air conditioning system up and running, but the delays in construction could not allow it for the test event. He added that lower outside temperatures during the August winter, will play a role in helping alleviate the situation.

Nascimento believes that the third wave of test events, that has just begun, will show the capabilities of the full Rio 2016 staff. As the organizing committee continues to learn from the test events, they now have a full team ready to stage the Olympics in four months.

While the shooting test event may have some hiccups, Nascimento says that the strong cooperation between Rio 2016 and the ISSF will ensure no future issues.

"We are in the middle of construction of the temporary overlay so it is a matter of changing the mood," Nascimento said to ATR. "Now we have the teams fully dedicated, so the people on shooting will be working on shooting [in August], and they are fully present on those venues making it a better event as a test. We are so close to the Games; we cannot lose focus."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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