Technical details
Each competition consists of a preliminary round, followed by a shoot-out
final.
For rifle and pistol events, targets are at 50m and 25m for the rapid-fire and
sport-pistol events and 10m for the air pistol, running-target and air-rifle
events.
Shooting targets vary in size but they are all marked out in concentric rings
to give scoring zones, ranging from one point for the outer ring to 10 points
for the inner bullseye.
They have two different background colours, white on the outside and black on
the inside. If a shot hits the line between two zones it scores the higher
point.
Targets in skeet and trap are saucer-shaped 'clays' - which can be black,
white, yellow or orange and measure 110mm in diameter.
The clay targets are launched singly for trap and two at a time for double
trap. Shooting stations for skeet are set in a semi-circle, and targets are
released singly or as doubles from two different levels.
For trap events the targets are thrown out by a machine at pre-determined
trajectories. They must fly a distance of 75m.
In skeet, targets are projected from two 'houses' at different heights -
called 'low' and 'high' houses.
Five facts
1) Shooting dates back to the Middle Ages. St Sebastianus Shooting Club in
Cologne, Germany, was formed in 1463.
2) The Olympic disciplines of skeet and trap stem from clay pigeon shooting
which has been a popular sport since the late 18th Century.
3) At the Olympic Games, shooting used to be open; that is men and women would
compete openly against each other. But that changed for the Atlanta Games in
1996.
4) A new shooting event at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was the women's trap
and skeet.
5) Great Britain has won a total of 14 golds, 15 silvers and 19 bronze medals
in shooting events.
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