Royal barracks open for business

Two Olympic sports have an unlikely meeting over the coming seven days, with the major test event for shooting openingon Monday and then offering runners in the London marathon the accompaniment of gunfire as the race passes through the venue at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich next Sunday.

The ISSF World Cup runs until 28 April and will be the first time a shooting event has been held in the capital. Featuring rifle, pistol and shotgun competitions it will use combined 10m and 50m ranges, something previously untried in the sport. The venue, which will have a capacity of 7,500 in the summer faces a tough test with 95 nations attending and 700 athletes - almost double the number that will compete at The Games.

No official Olympic places will be awarded via the event but most teams will use it as a crucial step in the selection process. Certainly Britain's Peter Wilson,, a competitor in the shotgun double trap who took first place and set a world record (hitting an extraordinary 198 of 200 targets) at a World Cup event in Tucson, Arizona, last month, is looking both to try out the Olympic facilities and impress.

"I am absolutely buzzing about it," he said. "It's going to be mega, the chance to shoot not only a test event but a World Cup is really, really exciting."

A strong medal hope, Wilson is keen to acclimatise at the facilities he hopes to be using during the Games. "There's a lot to cram in the week that I am on the range," he said. "I want to get an idea of the background, get to know the people in the range, what the targets are like, what the traps are like and how it feels, what it's like to be standing in front of a stadium. I relish the challenge."

However, despite coming off such a formidable result in Arizona, the athlete says that by just concentrating on each event as it comes he is making his ultimate goal that much more achievable. "I think if you get too caught up in it, you rather lose focus on where you want to be," he said. "And I want to go to the Olympic Games and I want to win gold. I'll be desperately upset with anything other than that."

His sport's improbable clash with the marathon is unlikely to be a distraction, although the race starts on Blackheath and will pass down Ha-Ha Road, cutting through the middle of the Royal Artillery Barracks when the shooters are in action at the venue. Organisers are intending to warn runners not to be alarmed if they hear the sound of gunfire during the race.