NUTHAMPSTEAD Shooting Centre has been named as a training site for the 2012 London Olympics. The centre was chosen on Monday by the London Organising Committee Pre-Games Training Camp Guide, which will give teams and individual athletes a selection of v

NUTHAMPSTEAD Shooting Centre has been named as a training site for the 2012 London Olympics.

The centre was chosen on Monday by the London Organising Committee Pre-Games Training Camp Guide, which will give teams and individual athletes a selection of venues from which they can choose to prepare from for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Nicky Barker, who owns the Nuthampstead shooting ground with husband Martin, said: "We're very pleased to feature in the programme and we've worked hard to get where we have.

"This is a great opportunity and we're confident we can give the competitors all they need."

The centre, which has top-of-the-range facilities and experience in holding major championships and international competitions, will play host to the world's best clay shooters.

Nicky said: "We've done a lot of preparation for this and we have held international trap shoots here for the past 16 years, as well as being involved with a number of British teams both for previous Olympic Games as well as the Commonwealth Games competition - so we have a lot of experience."

Two years ago Nuthampstead missed out staging the 2012 Olympic shooting competitions, with the Great Britain Target Shooting Fed-eration (GBTSF) com-mittee choosing the Dartford Shooting Ground instead.

Nicky said: "We narrowly missed out, which was really disappointing because we thought we had a lot to offer.

"They went for Dartford because it is closer to the Olympic Village.

"However, being chosen as one of the training sites will make up for that and we're really looking forward to hopefully being involved."

The Nuthampstead Shooting Centre was one of 17 venues in Herts to make the guide.

The guide will go to the Olympic and Paralympic National Organising Commitees (NOCs) of the more than 200 competing countries, who will then choose which venues to use.

Herts county councillor Derrick Ashley, executive member of planning and external relations, said: "This is exciting for the county. To have top athletes from around the world training at our facilities in preparation is an acknowledgment of the high standard of sports facilities Herts has to offer.

"We are developing our sports facilities, sup-porting our athletes at all levels and promoting Hertfordshire's leisure, tourism and business to secure a positive, lasting legacy for the county.