From: SSAA, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Station: 3AW Date: 08/09/2000 Program: BREAKFAST Time: 06:41 AM Compere: ROSS STEVENSON/DEAN BANKS INTERVIEW WITH YVONNE HILL, FORMER OLYMPIC SHOOTER AND OLYMPIC SHOOTING TEAM MANAGER ROSS STEVENSON: Yvonne Hill is the Shooting Team section manager. She is in Adelaide, where it is extraordinarily early in the morning and she has got up to talk to us, because she�s going to talk to us about shooting and there�s a reason for that and that is that if we cast our minds back to Atlanta and we remember that our first gold medal, I think, was Michael Diamond. I hope I�m not offending Russell Mark. Yvonne, good morning. YVONNE HILL: Good morning. How are you?. ROSS STEVENSON: Good. Was it Michael Diamond first, or Russell first? YVONNE HILL: It was Michael first in Atlanta and Russell followed soon after. ROSS STEVENSON: And Michael, of course, is from Goulburn. We know Russell is back there for what I think is his fourth Olympics. YVONNE HILL: I believe so. He�s a very experienced hand at that Olympic game and does very well. ROSS STEVENSON: Oh, yes. They�re the two top stars in our team for this year. ROSS STEVENSON: Right-oh. And I think I heard Russell say the other night on Channel 7�s version of Millionaire that he won the World Cup recently. So would he be the favourite again in his event? YVONNE HILL: Well, he will certainly give everybody else a fright. He won his first Gold in World Cups in Sydney in March, the test event, and he�s looking very good. DEAN BANKS: Has there been a lessening of interest in the sport of shooting over the last few years, with gun controls and buy back schemes and all that? YVONNE HILL: We�ve had a lot of publicity, of course, which is � in terms of shooting in general, our sport, has never been a high profile sport in terms of publicity. It�s has probably more for the Olympic shooting sports over the past four years because of the success of Russell and Michael than ever before. ROSS STEVENSON: Do you pull the trigger, Yvonne? YVONNE HILL: Yes. I�m a former Olympian and you mentioned Benny Pike, Benny and I went to the Moscow Olympics together and, in fact, he passed the torch to me in the torch relay up at Coolum recently. ROSS STEVENSON: I tell you what, if ever you got in a scrap, you two would be fairly handy. Benny the boxer and you with a shottie. YVONNE HILL: [Laughs] Yeah. ROSS STEVENSON: And how many in the shooting team? YVONNE HILL: We�ve got 23 shooters. It�s the biggest ever team. It�s more than double the size of the team that went to Atlanta and it�s probably our strongest ever team, as a result of the Olympic Athlete program, which has really brought some young shooters up rapidly over the last few years. DEAN BANKS: It�s not a � simply a question that it�s a home town event, that we keep hearing about the biggest teams ever? YVONNE HILL: Yes, I think that�s pretty much across the board. ROSS STEVENSON: Is that why we�ve got more, because it�s cheaper to have more? YVONNE HILL: Well, we do get a little bit of an advantage being on home soil, because you actually get a few additional places. But I think it�s also a little less expensive than when we have to take teams overseas too. ROSS STEVENSON: Now talk about a home ground advantage, I mean, maybe I can understand it in athletics, because there�d be � I don�t know � a lot of cheering for Cathy Freeman because we�ve got more Australians in the crowd. Is the home ground � I couldn�t imagine that being a benefit in shooting. Is- - YVONNE HILL: Well, not exactly. I think our best advantage is the huge support from the Australian public and family and friends. But in addition to that, we�ve had the opportunity to train on a number of occasions on the Sydney ground, which is absolutely magnificent, by the way, it�s the best in the world, I would say from my experience. The only problem we have there and it could be a problem given that September is the windiest month in Sydney, is the weather, because that can seriously affect that accuracy of your shooting. ROSS STEVENSON: I take it, Yvonne, that when I�m standing � I�m leaning down there and I�m shooting at a target and perfectly still, that the wind will have no effect on the bullet? YVONNE HILL: It does have an effect on the bullet, I�m afraid. It throws it about something awful. DEAN BANKS: Can you be wind assisted? YVONNE HILL: No, I�m afraid not. The clay target shooters were telling me just a few days ago that the wind was flattening the targets, so that where you would expect it to go is not where it goes� ROSS STEVENSON: Isn�t that interesting- - YVONNE HILL: �so you have to be really sharp. ROSS STEVENSON: Chicago was the head of the � was the mobster city. That�s where Al Capone was. It�s also called the windy city. I mean, I presume everyone that got shot by the Mafia was not someone they intended to shoot, but the person standing next to them. YVONNE HILL: Yeah. Well, we�re not into that sort of stuff, as you know. [Laughs] ROSS STEVENSON: I appreciate that. Yet the Olympic Games, it is said that the Australia � the AOC is heading for 20/20/20, right? Twenty gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze is the aim. YVONNE HILL: Yeah. ROSS STEVENSON: Sports Illustrated has come out overnight and said that Australia will finish with 18 gold medals and 67 in total, ranking it fourth in the nations of the world, behind America, Russia, someone � don�t ask- - DEAN BANKS: China? ROSS STEVENSON: Yes, it could be China. YVONNE HILL: Probably. ROSS STEVENSON: Because we�re ahead of the Germans, who are fifth. How many of those are going to be contributed by our shooters, of the 20/20/20? YVONNE HILL: Well, I believe there will be some, but I wouldn�t like to lay money on how many. I think that would be a losing bet to place, because it could be more or less than people expect. ROSS STEVENSON: Have a shot at it. YVONNE HILL: Ha, ha, ha, ha. ROSS STEVENSON: Two, two, two? YVONNE HILL: It�s possible. ROSS STEVENSON: Would two, two, two be a good result? YVONNE HILL: It�s certainly possible. DEAN BANKS: Is there anybody else that we should be keeping an eye or an ear out for, apart from a Diamond or a Mark? YVONNE HILL: Oh, yes, there are quite a number of people. ROSS STEVENSON: Give us a smokie. YVONNE HILL: Sorry? ROSS STEVENSON: Give us, you know, someone we�ve never heard of who might sneak up and win a gold medal? DEAN BANKS: If not a smoking gun. YVONNE HILL: From Australia? ROSS STEVENSON: Yeah. YVONNE HILL: Yeah. We�ve got some very strong young people in the rifle team. ROSS STEVENSON: Name one. YVONNE HILL: We�ve got a Timothy Lowndes [phonetic], who�s- - ROSS STEVENSON: Timothy Lowndes, that�ll do. YVONNE HILL: Yes. He�s going to have his 21st birthday while he�s at the Games, which will be something to remember. He�s the only one in the team who is shooting three events. ROSS STEVENSON: He�d be the only 21 year old who�ll have a few shots at his 21s, but it won�t be tequila. YVONNE HILL: [Laughs] We�re going to make sure he has a good time. ROSS STEVENSON: Do they have clay pigeons, is that what � is one of the events clay pigeons? YVONNE HILL: Clay target, it�s called. Yeah, clay target, they�re round clay discs, made out of clay. ROSS STEVENSON: I was talking to a bloke once who�s taken up shooting, he said he�d taken up shooting clay pigeons and he�s put in a request to see if they�ve got clay barns. YVONNE HILL: [Laughs] ROSS STEVENSON: Good luck, Yvonne. DEAN BANKS: Yvonne, just before you go, Ross mentioned tequila, is it true that some shooters might have a drink or two just to steady the hand? YVONNE HILL: I�m afraid not. It has the reverse effect. They�ll certainly be having one or two afterwards, but not before. DEAN BANKS: That�s one of the apocryphal stories? YVONNE HILL: Yes. DEAN BANKS: All right. Nice to talk to you and thank you for getting up so early. YVONNE HILL: That�s fine. Bye. DEAN BANKS: Yvonne Hill joining us on the line from Adelaide. And she�s the Shooting Team Section Manager. ROSS STEVENSON: And you heard it first, young Timothy Lowndes, who on his 21st birthday, you know, the rest of Australia will be going, �oh, my God, who�s Timothy Lowndes� and we�ll be going, �oh, yeah, Tim�. DEAN BANKS: Yeah. Yvonne told us. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
