SHOOTING - Ace shot lines up London in sights

Thomas Nobes is setting his sights on the 2012 Olympics and, after proving himself as a dead-eye marksman, the air-pistol shooter has a better than even chance of getting there.
Nobes won the junior (under-21) gold medal at the ISSF Oceania Shooting Championships in Sydney in the first week of November but he is under no illusion how tough it will be to be picked for the Olympics.
"You have to be be pretty good and be able to shoot certain scores consistently to get picked for an Olympics," the 18-year-old said.
"But if I put the time in training then I can definitely see myself qualifying ... and I don't think it will take that long."
Nobes won the only gold medal in the pistol classes, beating a field of mainly Australian shooters to win the 10m air pistol event.
He won by just a few points after shooting 60 pellets in the event and was the outstanding achiever in the New Zealand pistol team, which also brought home a silver and two bronzes. His father Gerald, who first encouraged him to start shooting, was a part of the team that won bronze in the centre-fire pistol class.
The team was part of a larger New Zealand team, including shooters from all of the Olympic disciplines, that shot at the purpose-built 2000 Sydney Olympics venue in West Sydney.
"It was a great experience to shoot at a world class venue like that - the ranges are huge and they have an electronic scoring system," he said.
It gave him a taste of things to come and the Whangarei Boys' High School student, who has been shooting for four or five years, now plans to start shooting in the open classes.
"I generally shoot junior sports pistol and standard class but now I'm going to start shooting free pistol, which means that I'll be shooting against the best there is (in New Zealand)," he said.
He will have his first major test in the class at the national championships at the Ardmore Club in Auckland in March.
Nobes is currently coached by Greg Yelavich, perhaps the best known shooter New Zealand has to offer. The Auckland shooter has won 10 Commonwealth Games medals and has also attended three Olympic Games.
"He knows everything there is to know about shooting and is also a pretty funny guy as well," Nobes said.
With Yelavich looking over his shoulder the future looks good for Nobes and he has decided that London is a good target to aim at.