Shooter Adams fulfils Olympic 'fairytale'

You'd think qualifying for your first Olympics alone would be tough enough.

But shooter Paul Adams did it within weeks of starting a new career as a registered nurse.

The 23-year-old became just the second Australian to automatically qualify for the Rio Games with a gold-medal performance in the men's skeet at the final selection event at the weekend.

Adams met the benchmark of 122 targets from 125 for a place in the Australia Cup 2 semi-final, before winning a tense sudden-death shoot-off for the title.

"It's a really unbelievable feeling," he told AAP.

Adams narrowly missed out on selection for the London Olympics, prompting him to reconsider whether it was worth pushing on for another four years.

He was studying at the time, and contemplated either pursuing it so he could start working and earning money or putting it on the backburner and go "full force" on shooting.

"I chose the shooting," he said.

Adams went on to make the 2012 Commonwealth Games team, then a host of finals at international competitions.

"I thought `oh well, I might have a shot this time. I'm looking a bit more confident'.

"And it turned out to be the right choice.

"It's kind of a fairytale for me."

Like most young shooters, Adams has had to juggle a "real life" with training and conditioning.

He graduated from nursing just a few months ago and started a new job at a public hospital in Brisbane.

They hired him knowing he was trying to get selected for the Rio Olympics and that, if he did make the team, he was going to be busy in the first six months of the year.

"They're very supportive and they're working around my training schedule at most times.

"It's all happening at the moment."

Lalita Yauhleuskaya is the only other shooter to have met the criteria to be automatically nominated to the Australian Olympic Committee for Rio.

Shooting Australia selectors meet this week ahead of officially naming its team in early April.