Diamond to shoot at Olympics
By staff writers and wires
May 26, 2004

OLYMPIC shooting champion Michael Diamond will fire again at the Athens Olympics after an appeal by rival Nathan Cassels to the Court of Arbitration for Sport failed.

CAS finished hearing arguments in the legal battle over an Australian Olympic team berth between the two shooters earlier today and handed down their decision this afternoon.

Diamond won the pair's trap shoot-offs - including one at the Athens Olympic site - but his eligibility for the 2004 Games was put into doubt when he missed two selection events after a legal case involving his ex-girlfriend left him with a suspended gun licence.

The decision clears the way for Diamond to shoot for an historic third straight gold medal in Athens.

His spokesman said Diamond was still waiting to hear back on the status of his nomination for the Olympic team.

Cassells said he would take the verdict on the chin.

"That's life. We just put it up to them and obviously at the end of the day it was in their court, it was in the judges court of course, and they know best," he said.

"I'll be surely having a go for the next few teams."

Cassells said he decided to press ahead with the appeal for his family, his friends, his town, all the people who have supported him and other shooters who might have been in his shoes.

"I just didn't do it for the sake of doing it ... we thought we had a good case but at the end of the day obviously we didn't have a good enough one," he said.

"But that's life, life goes on."

Cassells said he would now go back to work at his meat works job in country Victoria to help pay legal costs.

With AAP