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The Olympics suddenly seemed a lot closer once the shooting team was named, and it really hit home that I was going to Beijing when I got all my kit for my first Games.

We had to go to the NEC in Birmingham to pick it up, and there's loads of it - I even got a camcorder, so you might spot me filming everything at the opening ceremony on 8 August. I'm really looking forward to it.

The GB team was , and there are five of us in the shooting events - Richard Faulds, Jon Hammond, Steve Scott, Elena Little and me.

Elena is lovely and we and get on very well. Steve and me have been best friends for the last six or seven years, so I feel really lucky them both on the team with me.

I've also know Richard, who's going to his fourth Olympics, for a long time and we get on well, and I met Jon at the World Cup event in China and he's a really nice guy.

It's a nice mixture of youth and experience. At 21, I'm the youth, and Richard's the experience!

I actually knew I had been selected for the team since the World Cup event in Texas in May, but all I could say when people asked me was that I'd been nominated.

So it was nice when the team was finally confirmed - it made it all feel a bit more real.

My last international competition before the Olympics was the European Championships in Cyprus in earlier this month, although as I thought they were were a bit to close to the Games.

But as it turned out, I went because I'd had to get a new barrel and stock for my gun, so I wanted to shoot in another competition with it before Beijing.

I was a bit heavier when the other stock was made for me, but I've lost some weight in recent months so it was starting to bruise me a bit and feel a little uncomfortable on my face.

The new one is a much better fit for me. I can shoot loads and loads and not feel a thing, but with my old stock it was just starting to rub a bit on my shoulder and face, especially when it was hot, and it's going to be really hot in Beijing.

The new stock was fitted in Italy where my gun manufacturer Peruzzi is based. The guy measured me up, and it was done in a day.

At the Europeans I shot 21 out of 25 in my first line which was a bit disappointing, and I missed out on the final by two - I shot a 67 but needed a 69.

Despite that, I think everything is going OK. I feel like I'm shooting pretty well, I just haven't had a really good competition yet.

We got a team silver at the World Cup event in Belgrade; it's always nice to win a team medal, though I have to admit I didn't shoot that brilliantly! I was carried a bit in that one.

We leave for the Olympics on 30 July, and will be spending a few days at the Team GB camp in Macau before arriving in Beijing on 4 August.

We'll have four days before the opening ceremony to get settled into the Olympic Village, and my competition starts on 11 August.

Before we depart, I've got another week-long training trip to Italy, then all of the Olympic team are going to the at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire for two days. After that I'll have a couple of days' training at home, then it'll be time to go.

I'm not going to be doing as much shooting as I normally do in the last couple of weeks before the Games begin, just to calm things down a little bit.

We get out there I'll probably shoot for one or two days before the competition but hopefully the hard work has already been done and I can just have a bit of a practice before my event begins.

I don't feel nervous at the moment but I'm sure when I get out there I will be. At the moment, I'm just quite excited about the whole experience. I feel really lucky to be going, I just want to do my best and we'll see what happens.

Charlotte Kerwood was talking to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sport's Mark Barden.