ISSF Beijing World Cup 2008 to kick off in Beijing in mid April

Beijing Shooting Range CTFPhoto Gallery>>(BEIJING, March 20)-- The ISSF Beijing World Cup 2008 is expected to open in Beijing Shooting Range Hall and Beijing Shooting Range CTF on April 12 to 20, according to a press conference authorized by Shooting Supervision of State Sport General Administration on Thursday.

As one of the "Good Luck Beijing" sport events, the World Cup is only pre-Olympic shooting competition to test the Olympic shooting venues and the Games operation team.

Up to March 19, 1,600 participants including 1,273 shooters and technical officials and coaches from 92 countries and areas are bound to Beijing for the World Cup. The figure enabled the competition to be the largest shooting event ever in China and the "Good Luck" sport event with most participants to date.

According to the organizers, national shooting teams especially world shooting powerhouses have set up backbone athletes to the competition and qualified shooters for the Beijing Olympic Games are all expected to compete here in Beijing.

Based on the Olympic shooting competition schedule, there are fifteen shooting events in the eight-day competition, including nine men's and six women's events.