It's been a long wait, but finally South Africa's Martin Senore will take aim and fire on Friday.
The sole member of the South African shooting team will begin his Olympic campaign in the 50m prone target category. The first step will be to make it past the qualifying round.
Shooting manager Jake van der Wilden said on Thursday that Senore's preparations had gone well and that they had used the past two and a half weeks to assess the conditions.
As far as the competition was concerned, Van der Wilden explained there were about 30 countries whose shooters were capable of making the final, including Japan, Korea and the United States.
Van der Wilden pointed out that apart from accuracy, the sport required tremendous concentration, "a very steady hand, good eyes and good equipment".
But Senore most certainly possesses these attributes.
"He's normally a very placid, laid-back character," said Van der Wilden. "But obviously this is a huge occasion. So, while I think he's feeling confident, he's also a bit nervous. I think there would be something wrong if he wasn't nervous."
Although the range at the Markopoulo Shooting Centre will be jam-packed with the world's best marksmen, Senore will not be out of his depth. In last year's World Cup, he managed fourth place, breaking the African record in the process.
- South African Jenna Dreyer will also spring into action for the first time on Thursday.
The 18-year-old diver will be competing in the 10m platform preliminaries.
Dreyer will have to finish among the top 18 divers if she is to progress to Friday's semifinal. Then, only the 12 divers with the highest combined preliminary and semifinal scores will compete in the final on Sunday.
Her 3m springboard event will take place next Wednesday.
SA Olympians in action on Friday:
Athletics: (start times of the first heat/group in each event given because the start lists have not yet been determined) 8:30am: Women's heptathlon 100m hurdles - Janice Josephs. 8:55am: Men's triple jump qualification - Khotso Mokoena. 9:40am: Women's heptathlon high jump - Janice Josephs. 9:50am: Women's 100m round 1 - Geraldine Pillay. 6.30pm: Women's heptathlon shot put - Janice Josephs. 6:35pm: Men's 1 500m round 1 - Johan Cronje. 7:05pm: Women's 100m round 2 - Geraldine Pillay (pending qualification). 7:20pm: Men's high jump qualification - Jacques Freitag. 7.50pm: Women's heptathlon 200m - Janice Josephs. 8:20pm: Men's 400m round 1 - Marcus la Grange. 8:30pm: Women's discus qualification - Elizna Naude.
Beach volleyball: Men's round of 16 - Gershon Rorich/Colin Pocock.
Diving: 11:30am: Women's 10m platform preliminary - Jenna Dreyer.
Hockey: 5pm: Women, SA vs Germany.
Sailing: Laser race 9 & 10 - Gareth Blanckenberg.
Shooting: 11am: Men's 50m rifle prone qualification - Martin Senore.
Swimming: 11:10pm: Men's 4x100m medley relay heat 2 - RSA. 6:40pm: Men's 100m butterfly final - Eugene Botes (pending qualification). 7:09pm: Men's 50m freestyle final - Roland Schoeman.