Rahman fires at farce

By Paul Pickering
KEYSBOROUGH skeet shooter Paul Rahman is contemplating his future in the sport, after missing the Olympic final amid farcical scenes in Beijing last week.
The two-time Olympian, 23, finished in 30th place after five preliminary rounds at the Beijing shooting range – some 15 positions lower than his result in Athens four years ago.
But, as he prepared to fly home on Monday, Rahman dismissed the event as a “write-off”, claiming that the Chinese judges made blatant errors throughout the competition.
Rahman explained that several of his accurate shots – and those of his rivals – went unrewarded by the judging panel.
His comments lent further weight to the concerns expressed by fellow Australian Russell Mark after his final in the double trap last week.
Paul’s older sister, Natalia, 26, experienced similar frustrations with the judges on her way to an 11th place finish in the women’s skeet competition.
“I wasn’t happy at all with the referees here,” he said.
“It’s a really difficult mental game, and it’s a lot harder when you’re actually hitting targets and they’re not giving them to you.”
Rahman said he was baffled by the decision to have an all-Chinese judging panel.
“I’ve never heard of that before and I still don’t know why they did it,” he said, adding that three of the referees have now had their licences revoked.
“It’s a shame that it happened on such a big stage.”
Rahman finished on a five-round score of 110 from a possible 125 targets, placing him eight shots shy of the top-six final bracket.
Natalia hit 66 of 75 targets in her three qualifying rounds to finish four shots adrift of sixth place.
After narrowly missing the final in Athens as a 19-year-old, Paul felt he had a realistic chance of a medal this time around.
“I didn’t go as well as I thought I would,” he lamented.
“It would’ve been nice to be in the final, but it was a bit hard when you’re so frustrated.”
While Natalia has set her sights on London 2012, Paul is still deciding whether he has the desire to push for a third Olympics.
“I’d like to say I am (going to continue), but a part of me says ‘yes’ and a part of me says ‘no’. I still have dreams and I know I can win it, but I have to see what I’ve got left in the fuel tank,” he said.
“I’ve got a lot of thinking to do over the next month.”
For now, Rahman said he is looking forward to heading to the snow when he returns to Melbourne this weekend.
“I haven’t had the chance to get up there this year, so I’m just looking forward to catching up with some mates and doing things that normal people do,” he laughed.