From John Goodbody in Sydney
The sense of injustice felt in the British countryside, particularly among the shooting community, that their activities are scorned in the wake of the Dunblane tragedy, received global publicity yesterday when Richard Faulds won a gold medal in the double trap event.
Faulds, 23, the son of a Hampshire farmer, spoke after his victory over Australia's Russell Mark, the defending champion, of how much damage his sport has suffered from tragedies in which guns have been used by maniacs and criminals.
He said: "Dunblane has done so much harm to the sport. It's got nothing to do with competitive shooting. We got dragged into it afterwards. Of course, we all felt for the families. The incident was dreadful."
James Mair, the British assistant coach, was more outspoken saying: "Dunblane was very bad for the sport. People think those who have guns are lunatics."
However, among the first people to congratulate Faulds was Kate Hoey, the Minister for Sport who, like the new Olympic champion, was brought up using guns on a farm. She hugged Faulds in her delight at his triumph, Britain’s second gold medal of these Games.
She said: "I think some of the criticism about shooting has been misdirected. The sport has gone through a difficult time with the anti-gun lobby but it is an Olympic sport and these young people are just as dedicated as any other athletes. They work just has hard and they train just as hard. When people watch it they must see how exciting it is."
Hoey, who shot with Faulds this summer and was pictured in national newspapers wearing a competitive shooting uniform, added: "It is an Olympic sport and it gets lottery money through Sport England [the quango financed with taxpayers' money]. I feel strongly about this. These young people are very disciplined."
Faulds won the Olympic title, the first for Britain in a clay-pigeon event since Bob Braithwaite in 1968, with a remarkable coolness under pressure. He said: "When I was shooting in the qualification in the morning, my hands were shaking. I knew at one stage during the final that if I missed any more I would not even get the bronze so I just told myself not to miss any more clays."
Mark had led the qualifiers with 143 clay targets from a possible 150, which he carried forward to the final of six competitors. Faulds was grouped with two other competitors on 141 clays. Much depended on whether Mark could sustain his level of consistency for the final 50 shots. He could not, missing the 11cm saucer-shaped clays, which flew out of the trench just under 16m in front of the competitors, on the 20th and 23rd round.
Faulds, shooting steadily, finished level with the Australian on 187, and they had to shoot off for the gold medal. After a short rest period, the pair drew lots as to who should fire first. Mark lost and went first. Faulds, fifth in Atlanta, was the underdog, although he has won four world junior and four European junior titles, and was the 1997 European senior champion.
On his first effort, the Australian missed both clays as they whizzed out of the trap in a shallow 55m arc, at just under 65mph. The difficulty can be compared with trying to hit two spinning saucers, one on the rise and the other at the peak of its flight, at about 40m. However, Faulds failed too.
Both marksmen then reloaded and once again the Australian fired and missed. Faulds stepped carefully up to the stand and, this time, hit both clays. He then turned to Mark and gallantly said: "You gave it to me."
Afterwards, Faulds paid tribute to his family, his coach Ian Coley, and Peter Terry, the sports psychologist, who helped him prepare for the tension of the Olympic final.
"I expected to get into the final here and simply did not want to let anyone down. We decided that my parents, Bruce and Sue, should not come here because it would put more pressure on me. The event could not have been closer."
Faulds began shooting at the age of ten and hit 17 out of 25 clays in his first attempt. However, just before he competed in his first world junior championship, when he finished third, his PE teacher said that his hand-eye co-ordination was very poor.
In fact, Faulds used to suffer from a weak left eye and to cure it, underwent special dot-to-dot exercises with such good effect that he now shoots left-handed, using his left eye to focus on the target. His father built him a range at the family’s 300-acre farm but there have been efforts by some local residents to stop him shooting so often because of the noise.
Faulds comes from the village of Longparish, once the home of Colonel Peter Hawker, who fought under Wellington and was the author of Instructions to Young Sportsmen, a definitive text in the sport. The colonel would have been proud of how a man from Longparish yesterday showed such calmness and precision in the tension of the Olympic arena.
