Faulds can cope with pressure

Richard Faulds is taking a philosophical stance as he prepares to defend his Sydney Olympic gold medal in the double trap competition at the Markopoulo Shooting Centre in Athens tomorrow.

Faulds won a dramatic shoot-off four years ago to claim gold and believes that this time the fans will be turning up with a totally different agenda.

He explained: "When you're the champion, people don't come to see you hit the target, they come to see you miss. That means even more pressure.

"Before Sydney there was expectation but it will be much greater in Athens. I'll be trying my guts out to win it again. I can't say whether it will be harder to defend the title than win it, this is the first time I have defended one."

Faulds has been firing off 1,500 shots a week at his family farm in Hampshire to prepare for Athens but it will all come down to the 200 times he pulls the trigger of his 12-gauge Beretta shotgun during the competition.

Dealing with the demands of a major event has become second nature for Faulds who first shot for Great Britain at 13, became a world junior champion at 16, and finished fifth at the Atlanta Olympics just three years later. In Sydney, he was Britain's first shooting gold medallist since Malcolm Cooper in 1988.