Shooting: Kiwi on target to produce a top-six finish

When Olympic shooting manager Ian Pottinger is asked what chance of success he gives his team in Sydney, he cites history: New Zealand's last shooting medal was 32 years ago.

Pottinger suspects that the largest New Zealand shooting squad to go to an Olympics could provide a finalist - someone in the top six.

But he won't say which of his seven shooters it is, instead listing all as contenders.

In a sport where there is a fine line between success and failure, New Zealand shooters have erred on the wrong side at the Olympics.

They have an outstanding Commonwealth Games record, but seven Olympic visits have provided only a smallbore bronze to Ian Ballinger at Mexico City in 1968.

Trap shooter Brant Woodward is the only one in Sydney with Olympic experience. He was in a two-man Atlanta team managed by Pottinger.

Woodward was second at the Commonwealth championships in Hamilton; Tania Corrigan won three medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games; skeet shooters Brian Thomson and Geoffrey Dukes could reach a final if they hit peak form, and women's trap shooter Teresa Borrell was in fine pre-Olympic touch. Matamata's Des Coe will contest the double trap.

Woodward, 38, and former world junior championship placegetter Victor Shaw will be in action in the trap qualification round, which begins tomorrow.

They will be up against Olympic and world champion Michael Diamond, a brash Australian car radio salesman who is a household name in his homeland.

Diamond hit 149 clays out of 150 in Atlanta, 25 in qualifying and 124 in the final. Woodward has a best of 122 from 125; Shaw 120.

Corrigan shoots in the women's air pistol qualification round tomorrow. She was the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.

Shooting competition begins today.

- NZPA