Shooter Igaly hopes to make big noise at Games

By Balazs Koranyi

BUDAORS, Hungary (Reuters) - Diana Igaly's determination to defend her Olympic skeet shooting title nearly landed her in police custody.

For nearly 30 years, the Hungarian has trained on a shooting range on the edge of a forest near her home town of Budaors.

In 2006, local officials passed new noise regulations, after complaints from residents in the rapidly-sprawling town, and restricted her skeet, or clay-target, practice to two hours a day. No-one told Igaly, however.

As she practised one day, police arrived and ordered her off the range, threatening to arrest her if she disobeyed.

"I've been on this range for 28 years," Igaly, 43, told Reuters. "And there's not much else here. There's no running water or a toilet...but I do sometimes find holes in the ground dug by wild boar."

With the Beijing Games approaching, Budaors has temporarily relaxed the restrictions on its prominent citizen, allowing Igaly, who became Hungary's oldest female Olympic champion when she won gold in Athens, to practice for two two-hour sessions each day.

"That's still not enough but it's not too bad," Igaly said. At least I can stop travelling around seeking a shooting range.

"Two years of strife are behind me. It's been pure anguish...but I hope I'm on track now.