The Olympics come only every four years, so preparations should really be perfect. Despite the long lead-in time, however, Finland’s trap shooters’ arrival to Rio for the Olympics was delayed after problems with their weapons at customs.
The Finnish Olympic Committee had failed to secure the required permits in time, causing a one and a half day delay for 2008 gold medallist Satu Mäkelä-Nummela and Vesa Törnroos in Holland as the transit license for her guns was missing.
Then once she arrived in Rio, her guns weren’t transported to the practice facility so she missed one training session.
Despite the mishaps, she’s relaxed ahead of the games.
"There are always screw-ups," said the shooter from Orimattila. "My departure was delayed till the following day, and the change didn’t affect my plans. There’s no problem."
Mäkelä-Nummela was in top form in Baku in June, winning one stage in the ISSF World Cup competition, and is targeting the semi-finals in Rio as "after that, everyone’s on the same start line". She’s fully focused on the competition this time, having seen a bit of the city on her previous visit to Brazil.
"On this trip there’s no plan to leave the athletes’ village for anything but the shooting range," said Mäkelä-Nummela. "The goal is that I am in the semi-finals among the top six, but there are 20 others that want the same thing too."