FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Shooting - Skeet Mixed Team Qualification - Chateauroux Shooting Centre, Deols, France - August 05, 2024. Conner Lynn Prince of United States in action. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky/File Photo
(Reuters) -The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has welcomed the sport's return to the "heart of the Olympic experience" at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles after being held away from the main venue in Paris last year.
The shooting events at the 2024 Games were staged 270km from Paris in Chateauroux, with current ISSF President Luciano Rossi saying it was "a big mistake" by his federation predecessors to accept that venue.
The Italian also vowed to lobby the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure shooting was staged within the host city only in 2028.
Olympic organisers announced the venues on Tuesday, with target shooting to take place in a temporary indoor range in Long Beach while the shotgun events will be held at the LA Clays Shooting Sports Park in El Monte - both in LA County.
Rossi said in a statement the shooting community should be "proud and grateful to see our venues right at the heart of the Olympic experience".
"With determined efforts from my ISSF colleagues, and thanks to excellent co-operation with LA28 and the IOC, our shooting athletes will get the full Olympic Games experience and be at the heart of the action," he added.
Shooting will have a full programme of 15 events in Los Angeles.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Peter Rutherford)
