By Tom Degun

Matt_Skelhon_with_sunglassesAugust 29 - Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the birthplace of the Paralympics, is today hosting a major shooting event to celebrate One Year to Go to the start of London 2012.


The three-day International Paralympic Committee (IPC) shooting competition will see 77 shooters from 15 nations battling it out for the podium places at the location where the seeds of the Paralympics were sown in 1948 when German neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttman organised events for World War Two veterans with spinal cord injuries who were rehabilitating at the local hospital.

Stoke Mandeville has been a hub for Paralympic sport ever since while the shooting competition will give Britain's top shooters the valuable opportunity to compete on home soil and in front of a home crowd ahead of London 2012.

The top British prospect at the event will Beijing 2008 Paralympic champion Matt Skelhon (pictured) set to star with the 25-year-old from Peterborough, who took up competitive disability shooting after being injured in a car accident in 2005, set to compete alongside compatriots Di Coates and Nathan Milgate.

Among the international athletes competing is legendary Australia's Elizabeth Kosmala.

The 70-year-old is one of the top medal-winning Paralympic shooters of all time having collected eight Paralympic gold medals in a long career.

Kosmala, who was selected to be the Australian flag bearer at the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Opening Ceremony, was Australia's oldest representative at the Beijing 2008 Games and will be hoping to achieve the feat again at London 2012.

During London 2012, the Paralympic shooting event will take place at the Royal Artillery Barracks near Greenwich at the same location where the Paralympic archery event will take place.

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