Woolwich finalised as 2012 Olympic shooting venue

Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, said the decision “allows us to deliver the compact Games we promised in 2005”.

There had been proposals to move the sport to Bisley or Barking but, after investigating them both, the Olympic Board went back to their original choice.

British Shooting, the governing body for all target shooting within Britain, along with the majority of the shooting community, had backed Surrey’s Bisley venue.

Barking & Dagenham Council had said a move there could save £10m.

The board agreed that feasibility work would continue into Barking Reach but only as a reserve option.

Plans to stage the competition in Woolwich have infuriated the shooting lobby right from the start of the Olympics process, as the proposed venue is a temporary 7,500-seat structure, that will be taken down after the Games have finished.

As costs at Woolwich rise – from an initial quote of £30m to a latest estimate of £42m – the logic of spending so much on a building that will only be used for a month has been increasingly called into question.

This renewed hope among shooting enthusiasts that Bisley, the spiritual home of British shooting and the venue for the 1908 Olympic competition, would get the nod.

However, the 3,000-acre site was London 2012’s original choice for the shooting competition, but lost favour when it became clear it needed a major upgrade.

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