SYDNEY — After a meeting with technical delegates, management of the Sydney International Shooting Centre (SISC) has decided to fix a darkness problem in the 10-metre range that has surfaced at this week's Sydney World Cup tournament.

The issue chiefly surrounds the darkness and evenness of colour tones of the wood panelling behind the targets in the 10m range and, correspondingly, the finals range at the SISC, the Olympic shooting venue .

The wood is composed of recycled timber, chiefly ironbark and various types of gum tree, sourced from demolished warehouses, an abattoir and railway sleeper offcuts. It was chosen to fit in with an "Australiana" theme picked for the centre.

Several leading international coaches, including German rifle coach Claus-Dieter Roth, have claimed during this World Cup that the wood panelling is too dark, and is inconsistent between the different firing positions, or posts.

Roth, who includes world champion Sonja Pfeilschifter and Olympic champion Christian Klees under his tutelage, said earlier in the week that while some may not be affected, others will have problems with their targeting.

"The most important thing is the evenness of the background. That all the athletes have the same conditions," he said.

A technical official with the Swiss shooting team, Franz Gerwer, who also happens to be an optometrist, agreed that the problem could be an issue at Games-time.

"In the 10-metre range, the background is too dark and also the lighting is too dim. I find that you could see it in the results, that they say (there's) something that's not 100 percent."

The problem, along with several others which have since been fixed, was first raised at the Oceania Championships here in November 1999.

Tracey McAsey, venue manager with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), said that after those championships, technical delegates from the ISSF were called in to make a ruling on the issue.

After the lighting improvements, they agreed that it was suitable for this World Cup tournament. Today's meeting to discuss Olympic conditions took into consideration the further complaints.

McAsey said that although the issue is chiefly one of opinion, the decision to rectify the problem was taken to ensure that all athletes and team managements were completely happy with the venue.

"We had a meeting with the technical delegates," she said a short time afterwards, "and the issue arose and we all agreed."

"We'll have it fixed by Games-time. We had a bit of feedback about it, so we decided it would be best to solve the problem."

The problem now is exactly how to do that. The wood panelling must stay to fit in with the overall look of the centre, but some type of lighter material will be placed behind and some metres around the targets to block it out.

"We thought about corflute (a type of plastic material used in signs), but that could be too shiny," she said.

"We've got a few different options that we could use as a solution, so we're just going to determine which is best. We have to meet with the look of the games and make sure whatever we decide on fits the criteria."

Apart from this one issue, coaches and athletes at the Sydney World Cup have sung its praises. The coaches who spoke out about the panelling were quick to point out their happiness with the other aspects of the $30 million-dollar facility, which officials claim is the most sophisticated and modern shooting centre in the world.

"The whole venue here is quite sensational," said Gerwer. "The technical equipment and everything is fantastic."

"I like the whole centralised venue because everything is compact, compared to Atlanta, where it took you 10 minutes to get to the finals venue. So we are quite happy with it."

While a further $7 million is expected to be spent for the Games, fixing the 10-metre range is not expected to bother the budget.