While New Zealand’s 183 Olympic athletes are getting masks to combat Beijing’s feared pollution, trap shooter Graeme Ede is taking special measures against the haze.For a sport which requires exceptional eyesight, he has been deliberately training in poor visibility to prepare himself for expected hazy conditions. During a World Cup event at the Beijing Shooting Range in April, Ede found the clay targets increasingly harder to see as they whizzed up to 75 metres into the distance. “They look a bit murky when they get out a bit,” he said. “They were disappearing a little bit on the first three days but then it rained overnight and cleared the air a bit.”Ede, the Commonwealth Games champion, said concerns about poor visibility had forced him to adopt an unconventional training method. “Training in poor light conditions has probably helped me,” he said.Although China has taken steps to clear the air by the time the Olympics start, the pollution fears are considered serious by New Zealand officials to have all athletes screened for possible side-effects. Confirmed asthmatics have applied for an exemption allowing them to take ventolin — approval for which is essential, as the medication is on the list of banned substances.The masks, which effectively “glue” to the face, are similar to those used in highly contagious areas such as during a bird flu outbreak.
