A MASHAM man is gearing up to represent Great Britain in Olympic skeet shooting at the world championships in Cairo in May.

Mr John Robinson, aged 42, is sales manager at Masham-based agricultural supplies firm Ritchey Tagg, and he started skeet shooting when he was 26, but was experienced in game and rough shooting from the age of seven.

This, he said, stood him in good stead for the skeet shooting competitions, a form of clay pigeon shooting devised by the Americans to train gun crews during the Second World War, with irregular time releases of the clays.

"Cartridges are expensive when you're a young lad and it focused the mind on not missing,'' he explained.

Mr Robinson has an impressive record to date: He won the gold medal for individual shooting at the British Grand Prix, shooting 193 clays out of 200, ranking him number one in the country.

He also competed last year both as an individual and as part of the England and Great Britain teams at the Nordic, Home and European Commonwealth championships, where he won gold and silver medals.

He has been capped for England 19 times and twice for Great Britain and has been a member of the England clay pigeon shooting team since 1989.

However, during the world championships in Cairo he will be up against the world's best, with each country sending its top three.

"I'm slightly nervous about it, even now when it's four months away. The fear of failure is always at the back of your mind, however positively you think.

"Hopefully, I have enough experience now to stay positive and enjoy it. I think the key thing is you go there and enjoy it and be realistic about your ambitions and do the best you can.

"The competition is top class, what's likely to win is 149 out of 150 or even 150 out of 150 clays.''

Mr Robinson's ultimate ambition is to be selected to represent Great Britain at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but before that he has been picked to compete in the world cup in Cyprus in April and hopes to be selected again for competition in Italy in June.