First a kick in the teeth for Aaron Cook, now a bullet in the back for two top shooters who claim they been unfairly excluded from Britain's 11-strong Olympic squad in similar circumstances to taekwondo's world number one. One of them, also named Cook, is the Army's crack marksman.

A petition on behalf of serving soldiers Morgan Cook and Ian Jack is to be presented to the Defence Minister Philip Hammond at a military function this weekend pointing out that both pistol shooters have achieved the Olympic qualifying score yet have been told there is no place for them at London 2012, despite  host nation slots being available.

The ex-Labour Sports Minister, Kate Hoey, has also stepped into another major Olympic selection row that has created a war zone between the Army and the sport's governing body, British Shooting. A former president of British Shooting, she says she is investigating "what seems to be a terrible situation".

Cook, 39, a Warrant Officer in Military Intelligence, where 27-year-old Jack is a corporal, were formally told last week that they had failed to gain places  in the men's Olympic rapid fire free pistol, leaving Britain with no representatives in the event.  Cook says they are 'devastated', claiming: "There seems to be a personal as well as a political agenda.  You must wonder if there is some sort of prejudice against Army people and pistol shooters in particular."

Last March we revealed that Britain's most celebrated marksman, Mick Gault (pictured below), OBE, had also missed out on the Olympics despite being the nation's most prolific Commonwealth Games competitor in any sport– 17 medals including nine golds.


He had achieved a qualifying score for the free pistol but was told that the only host nation quota place available was for the air pistol, even though he could have competed in either discipline under Olympic rules. After Hoey unsuccessfully made representations on his behalf Gault, 58, a civil servant with the RAF, professed himself "gobsmacked".

Britain will be sending only one pistol shooter to the Games, 27-year-old Georgina Geikie, a part-time Devon barmaid who is known as Britain's Lara Croft for her prowess with the 25 metres sport target pistol, one of four handgun disciplines.

British Shooting says the qualifying scores attained by the two soldiers were not eligible as they were made in practice and not designated events, a criteria agreed with the British Olympic Association (BOA).

They strongly deny any bias against service personnel or pistol shooters, who became pariahs after the Dunblane massacre in 1996 when 16 children  and a teacher were shot dead by a deranged gun collector, leading to a ban on  handguns.

This was only lifted and domestic training facilities for the Olympics restored, though restricted, following representations to the Home Office from Hoey and other MPs.


Cook (pictured above, right), a Bedfordshire-based Scot who holds the record as the all-time most successful British Army marksman, four times British Forces champion and winner of the Queen's Medal, says  bitterly: "It seems they would rather return the host nation quota places rather than give one of their only two qualified athletes the opportunity to compete."

Jack (pictured above, left) also won a major international championship in Berlin six months after taking up the sport.

Says Cook: "British Shooting have been less than helpful from the start. They have never provided us with facilities or funding. We have had to rely on the Army for support and they have been very good. But it has personally cost us around £15,000 ($23,000/€19,000) to make this progress in two years.

"Financially it has been hard and I have had to sell my watch and golf clubs."

Cook has a copy of a scorecard signed by a GB coach Hugh Hunter which shows he had a practice score of 587 out of 600, 19 more than the mark set by British Shooting and four points higher than the Olympic record.


"To put it into perspective, the men's rapid fire pistol Olympic champion of 2008, Oleksandr Petriv (pictured above) (a captain in the Ukraine Army) has achieved the British Shooting qualifying score of 576 only twice in his last five major events.

"It is outrageous that the British public are covering the cost of the Olympic Games yet are witnessing potential Olympic champions being denied the opportunity to compete.

"Why was the cut-off point made so made so early, almost 12 months before the Games? We pleaded with them give us more chances to qualify in competitions – and there were several more right up until this month – but they didn't want to know."

Cook likens the rejection to that of his taekwondo namesake: "Like Aaron, both Ian and I believe we have genuine podium chances but we are being discriminated against on a technicality."

Supporters of the 'outlawed' duo have organised a petition to the Defence Secretary and Cook is to send a written protest to the president of the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF).


No doubt the Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, a former Army major, will, take more than a passing interest.

Phil Scanlan, Team GB Shooting team leader responds: "I totally refute any suggestion of prejudice. The situation is simple; they haven't made the qualifying score in competition.  Because these are a home Games, in discussion with the BOA we decided on a specific qualification for the GB team, never mind about the International Federation mark.

"We came up with a score which is equal to finishing half way up the field in the Beijing Olympics.  We felt this was the fairest way across all the disciplines and decided on a series of major international events in 2011 and early this year where it could be achieved.

"It was quite clear to everybody, including the two soldiers, what the requirement was. No-one protested at the time.  It was exactly the same with Mick Gault.  It is absolute nonsense to say there is any bias against them as servicemen. Or pistol shooters.  It is quite simple for us; they did not make the qualifying score in competition despite having ample opportunities to do. They may have achieved it in training but that's like a golfer not making the cut and then saying, 'but you should see my form on the driving range'.

"This is based purely on performance, there is no prejudice.  If they had made the score, they would have been in."


This is not the only selection controversy in which British Shooting has been involved over the Olympics. There was an appeal to the Sports Resolutions arbitration panel by Olympic Trap shooter Abbey Burton who argued she was in better form than preferred choice Charlotte Kerwood (pictured above).

Scanlon acknowledges it was a close call.  "Inevitably in any selection process someone is going to be disappointed.  We were asked to reconsider but came to the same decision.

"I understand these situations because a home Olympics could be a life-changing event, but what I don't understand is why these Army guys, knowing the criteria and not having made it, are making a fuss.

"The taekwondo thing has opened things up with everyone saying, well, we've got a chance now."

At a time when selection squabbles are the names of the Games – yet another Cook, men's foil fencer Keith – claims the sport's governing body have blocked an appeal at his exclusion in favour of Husayn Rosowsky, it seems the Army's hot shots have been out-gunned in this deadly pistols-at-dawn duel.

Were they shot in the back? Or have British Shooting shot themselves in the foot?

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.