Australian Olympic shooting team gets late call-up to Paris village after competition wraps up in satellite location

Australian shooters have received an Olympic boost, being invited into the Paris village after their competition wraps up in Chateauroux. JON RALPH reports.

Australia’s shooters have been handed a late chance to enter the Paris Olympics athletes village to celebrate after finishing their competition in nearby Chateauroux.

The Paris shooting venue is 230km south of Paris, with the Australian Olympics Committee recently reaching out to the shooters to allow them to move into the village after the shooting events are completed.

The AOC has enraged many athletes after booting them out of the athletes village 48 hours after their event in an effort to create a high-performance culture in Paris’ smaller athletes village.

But because the shooters will have not stayed in the village they will be given the chance to bask in the elite Olympics atmosphere ahead of the closing ceremony then the charter flight back to Australia.

The shooters go into the Olympic competition with high hopes after a series of podium finishes in this year’s three World Cup events.

The women’s trap field is especially strong with Rio Olympics gold medallist Catherine Skinner back after missing Tokyo and fellow Victorian Penny Smith having won silver and bronze at this year’s events.

Rio gold medallist Catherine Skinner will be back in Paris. Picture: Tony Feder/Getty Images

On Friday they qualified ahead of Olympian Laetisha Scanlan, who won world cup gold in Italy in July last year and was incredibly unlucky to miss out given her form.

But thanks to watertight criteria Skinner and Smith were clearly the two athletes who were ahead given overall results and are Paris-bound.

Penny, sixth in Tokyo in the trap competition, said the competitors were thrilled to be allowed into the village after the skeet competition finished on Monday August 5.

“We are out of the village. Chateauroux is a few hours out of Paris,” she said.

“It will be different to what our experience was in Tokyo but the Olympic atmosphere will still be there. We will have crowds this time which will be different and after competition I am going to stay on and go back to the village and go to the closing ceremony which will be really good to get that experience.

“We are fortunate enough that we have been allowed to stay on and go into the village.

Kathryn and I and I think (skeet shooter) Ashlin (Jones) as well will stay on and spend some time in Paris and see a few other events and hopefully see the closing ceremony and then catch the charter flight home.

“Our competition is on July 30 and 31 so it will be good to support the skeet shooters and then head back into Paris.”

Originally published as Australian Olympic shooting team gets late call-up to Paris village after competition wraps up in satellite location