Today we have tickets to the last day of the shooting competition in Markopoulo, which we picked up as part of a package. We’ve never seen competitive shooting before, so we decide to make the trip as we have some time to kill before the women’s marathon and expect that travelling will be difficult later on as our journey to central Athens is along the marathon route. Paula Radcliffe is the big British hope for gold in the marathon, and the plan is to meet our friends, the Uncles, on the Marathon route and then go to the Olympic Stadium for the men’s 100 metres final after seeing Paula go past.
We arrive at the venue after the qualifying rounds have started. The British shooter, Richard Brickel is not doing well.
The girls are bored, so we decide to have some lunch. We are surprised to find that the food outlet is selling gyros, as well as the normal hot dogs. As we are tucking in, an Australian couple come over to us and give the girls badges and baseball caps promoting a shooting range.
We are just about finished and I’ve been outvoted on going to watch some more of the shooting, when Julie notices an Australian women, who she thinks is a competitor. The girls are dispatched to ask about the shooting range that is on the badges and caps. It transpires that the lady is not just a competitor, but the gold medallist in the women’s trap, Suzanne Balough. As the conversation progresses, she asks the girls if they would like to see her medal. She brings it out from inside her jacket and we get to see a real gold medal!