Matsuda has gold in his sights

Tomoyuki Matsuda will be trying to hit the target in the 10m Air Pistol category.

The man from Yokohama was in Ishinomaki city in Japan's north east competing in his national airgun championship on 11 March, 2011 when an earthquake provoked a tsunami which devastated parts of the country's Pacific coastline.

Ishinomaki was near the epicentre of the quakes and the shooters struggled to stay upright in the range where they were practising.

The tsunami that followed swept away their hotel under a massive tide of mud and water.

Many members of Japan's national Shooting team who work for the police and military were forced to pull out of the World Cup in Australia to join the rescue mission in north-east Japan.

Matsuda felt he should go with them, but his boss told him his duty was to go to Australia and represent Japan.

'He told me that it's especially at times like this you should compete, for the people affected by the disaster,' Matsuda said at the time.

Matsuda put in an outstanding performance - winning the top spot in the men's 10m Air Pistol and men's 50m Pistol events. He dedicated his victories to the earthquake and tsunami victims at home.

'I thought, "What I can do at this moment is to get a result",' he said afterwards. 'Conversely, it created pressure for me, but I thought I must win in this circumstance.'

The president of Japan's Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, has urged Matsuda to win gold to kickstart Japan's team.

'He told me, "Do your best to spur the team (by winning Japan's first gold medal)". So this is my goal and I would like to live up to the expectation,' he said.