Olympic Games
Venues-Beijing Shooting Range Hall
A shooter's paradise
Last Updated: Thursday, August 13, 2009 | 2:20 PM ET
Bernice Chan CBC Sports
Chinese military march past the Shooting Range Hall on April 15, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Guang Niu/Getty Images) The world’s top sharp shooters will get a chance to display their skills at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall, a new venue for the Summer Olympics.
Located west of Beijing, the shooting range hall is a long narrow rectangular complex that holds the qualification competition halls, a final competition hall, a storehouse and a room for armed police use.
The design of the building is such that it looks like a hunting bow, harking back to the origins of shooting. However, this shape can only be found at the main entrance, when visitors arrive at the venue.
The qualification and final competition halls both contain target ranges for 10m, 25m and 50m. The qualification competition halls seat 6,100, while the final competition hall has room for 2,500 spectators.
In April the venue hosted the “Good Luck Beijing” 2008 International Sport Shooting Federation World Cup and American Walton Glenn Eller III, a two-time Olympian and last year’s Fed Cup champion, was extremely pleased with the Shooting Range Hall.
He won second place in the tournament, the only one before the Games in August. “This is one of the best ranges I have ever seen,” said Eller. “I have had a lot of practice and I will try my best to get the gold at the Games.”
