NZealand shooter trains in dark for Beijing haze

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

WELLINGTON (AFP) — While New Zealand's 183 Olympic athletes are getting masks to combat Beijing's feared pollution, trap shooter Graeme Ede is taking special measures against the haze.

For a sport which requires exceptional eyesight, he has been deliberately training in poor visibility to prepare himself for expected hazy conditions.

During a World Cup event at the Beijing Shooting Range in April, Ede found the clay targets increasingly harder to see as they whizzed up to 75 metres into the distance.

"They look a bit murky when they get out a bit," he said.

"They were disappearing a little bit on the first three days but then it rained overnight and cleared the air a bit."

Ede, the Commonwealth Games champion, said concerns about poor...