THE OLYMPICS/ IRAN: The concentration is palpable as Nassim Hassanpour squints her eyes, purses her lips and furrows her forehead. Bang. A shot pierces the silence. A perfect hit.
Nassim examines the target down the barrel of her gun. It hangs limply, the central black spot reduced to tatters. She lowers her weapon, then tightens the knot on her black headscarf as a cluster of chador-wearing onlookers smile and take photos.
As the only woman in the Iranian Olympics 39-member team, 19-year-old Nassim, who is competing in the 10-metre air pistol, is fast gaining a following.
Nassim was discovered when she was 17 by a visiting Chinese coach, Lena Ching. At the time she was studying at a special sporting high school in her home town of Tabriz in north-western Iran and was reluctant to dedicate herself to the sport seriously.
"Shooting was never my sport. I just happened to do it as part of my studies. In fact as an animal-love I always associated it with hunting and war and thought it was aggressive," says Nassim. But Ching had singled her out as a potential shooting star, and her teachers didn't want a star slipping through their fingers.
Ching's hunch turned out to be spot-on, and in the three years since Nassim took up the sport she has come a long way, winning third place at the Asian Games in Malaysia.
"I don't mind if I don't come back with a medal, but I just want to break my own record. If I do that I'll be happy," says Nassim, who plays the sitar in her spare time as much for pleasure as for the fact that it strengthens her trigger finger and helps her concentration.
"It's early days yet, but I'll come back with a medal in the 2008 Olympics."
Her loose Muslim garb hides a toned, athlete's body, a result of training as a gymnast since the age of three. But due to the strict Islamic dress codes in Iran, Nassim had to give up her passion, gymnastics, as competing was not an option.
"When it comes to sports we can compete in, we're limited as they must comply with our religious beliefs, which means wearing the hejab," says Mahin Farhadizad, head of the Women's Shooting Federation.
So martial arts, horse-riding and chess are allowed, but sports such as swimming, athletics and beach volleyball are all out.
"I'm happy but also upset that I'm the only woman competing in the Olympics for Iran. I'd rather there were more," Nassim says, with a message for others. "Women in Iran should believe in themselves. I believed in myself, and look where it's got me."
Nassim practises up to six hours a day under the instruction of her coach, Javad Kohpayehzadeh, an Iranian former national shooting champion.
"Listen, we've always had at least one woman in the Olympics, but I'm not concerned with all that. For me, the most important thing is that Nassim's ready," says Kohpayehzadeh. "And she's ready."