General News
16 July, 2021
Penny Smith’s Olympic debut nearing
BOOKAAR shooter Penny Smith is putting the finishing touches on her Olympic preparations ahead of her maiden appearance at the prestigious games.
BOOKAAR shooter Penny Smith is putting the finishing touches on her Olympic preparations ahead of her maiden appearance at the prestigious games.
Smith is currently in Brisbane with her team-mates, completing last minute preparations ahead of their departure next Thursday.
The 26 year-old will enter the Olympic village upon arrival in Tokyo ahead of her competition on July 29 and 30 and August 1, and will then return to Australia just 48 hours after she has competed.
“We’re in a staging camp which is like a hub,” Smith said.
“Myself, Latiesha Scanlon, James Willett and Thomas Grice, we’re all the trap shooters and we’re staying in one house.
“We’re sort of isolated more from the community just because we’re restricted due to COVID but we’re able to continue to train at the range.
“We’ve been here since about the third (of July) and we’ll go straight from here to Tokyo.”
The staging camp has allowed Smith and her team-mates the opportunity to finetune their craft ahead of the international event.
“Everyone’s different with what they want to do and how they train,” she said.
“We’ve been left to our own devices with how we train; we don’t have to train every day.
“But for me, I’m one who trains a fair bit, so I’ve been hitting the range pretty hard which has been good.”
The training has been specific and challenging and serves a purpose in the lead-up to competition.
“There’s certain things we do focus on,” Smith said.
“We try and set little challenges for each other and if there’s a target I’m struggling with I try to work on that.
“We just try to keep our routine going.”
Smith said she had enjoyed getting to know her team-mates further ahead of the games.
“We compete against each other and know each other quite well,” she said.
“When you see each other day-in, day-out you have to adapt a bit but it’s not too bad.
“We’ve still got to stick to our own routine and do our own things but no one is getting in the way of each other.”
With her departure date nearing, Smith said it was really starting to sink in that she was bound for the Olympic Games.
She said the build-up to the event had been “long-winded” after the games were delayed 12 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I left home on the eighth of May just to go to Brisbane for two weeks and I haven’t been home since,” Smith said.
“The nerves aren’t too bad at the present time, we got our suits the other day which was really exciting, and it really got everyone geed up.
“We’ve still got a week of training left to go but once we hit the ground in Tokyo it will be full steam ahead so it’s going to be really exciting.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
The Tokyo Olympic Games run from July 23 to August 8, with Camperdown cyclist Grace Brown to also represent Australia in the individual time trial and women’s road race.