CLAY PIGEON SHOOTER Derek Burnett has become Ireland’s latest qualifier for London 2012, taking the total number of Irish Olympians to 40.
Burnett will compete in the Olympic Trap after the Irish Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (ICSPA) was allocated a quota place for one athlete in the event.
The Longford native was awarded the spot on the back of his bronze medal finish at the 2010 ESC European Championships in Kazan, Russia.
It will be Burnett’s fourth successive appearance at the Olympics. His best finish to date came at Athens 2004 when he finished ninth, narrowly missing out on the top six and a place in the finals.
Burnett’s qualification continues the ICPSA’s run of continuous appearances at the Olympics which stretches back to the Mexico 1968 Games when Dermot Kelly competed in the Trap and Arthur McMahon competed in the Skeet, another variation of clay pigeon shooting.
