Category Archives: archery

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Archery at the Asian Games – Day 4

26 September, 2014

Pic via Yonhap news.

Pic via Yonhap news.

 

INCHEON, Korea. Recurve eliminations day on a rain-soaked Gyegang Asiad Archery Field, and the host nation was shocked by the defeat of the mighty Korean men’s team, beaten by the Chinese by 5 set points to 4 in the semi-final. In windier conditions than previous days, the match went to a shoot-off, where the teams tied on 29 points but the Chinese won by being closest to the centre.

The Korean men have won every Asian Games team gold for the last eight editions of the Games going all the way back to 1982; now they must fight it out for bronze with Japan on Sunday, who unexpectedly lost their semi-final 5-1 to a resurgent Malaysia. Afterwards, Oh Jin-Hyek described the tournament as “harder than the Olympics”.

The KAA was quick to defend the team. The Korean women’s national team coach, Ryu Su-Jeong said:  “Korean archery is still winning, but is becoming more difficult.” Joo Hyun-Jung added, “Gold isn’t something to be taken for granted.” It appears that making the national team might be becoming something of a poisoned chalice; with the staggering achievements of the past and the sky-high expectations making any falls from grace that much harder.

 

In the women’s team event, Korea cruised through to the gold medal match, despite Joo Hyun-Jung having to pull out of the squad with a rotator cuff injury and being replaced by Lee Tuk-Young. They beat Kazakhstan before crushing India in the semifinal, and will face China in the final on Saturday. Despite the usual dominant display, the pressure is firmly on, as the Korean ladies have lost two finals in a row –  to Japan in the Asian Grand Prix and to the same Chinese team at the World Cup in Antalya in June this year.  A disappointed India will face Japan for the bronze.

There was slightly better news for the Koreans in the individual finals, although Lee Seungyun unexpectedly fell to Yong Zhiwei of China in the quarter-finals by a single point. Most matches went to form, setting up some intriguing clashes for Sunday. In the recurve men, Kuo Cheng Wei of Chinese Taipei will face Oh Jin-Hyek of Korea, with Yong Zhiwei of China facing Hideki Kukuchi of Japan in the other semi. In the recurve women, Jung Dasomi of Korea will face Ren Hayakawa of Japan, while Xu Jing of China will face Chang Hye-Jin.

Deepika Kumari was thrashed in her quarterfinal by Diananda Choirunisa of Indonesia, to face the wrath of the Indian media after a low-key performance for the Indian recurve team.

The competition continues with the compound finals tomorrow.

 

 

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Archery at the Asian Games – Day 3

25 September, 2014

Photo via segye.com

 

INCHEON, Korea: The compound team and individual eliminations were completed today, in the debut outing of the discipline at the 17th Asian Games. The women’s team of Seok Ji-Hyun, Choi Bomin and Kim Yun-Jee scored 238 points out of a possible 240 in the team’s quarter-final victory over Laos to break the world record of 236 points set by the USA team in 2011.

They then eased past Iran 229-222 in the semifinals and will shoot against Chinese Taipei for the gold medal this Saturday, with Iran and India contesting the bronze.

In the men’s team competition, India will face off against Korea in the gold medal match. Korea only just squeezed past the Phillippines in the semi-final, who will face Iran for the bronze. Afterwards, Choi Yong Hee said: “I’m glad to be in the final, but we haven’t won it yet. You have to do your best without losing concentration till the end if you want to win the gold.”

The strong performances from the Indian squad continued as Abhishek Verma upset favourite Choi Yong Hee of Korea 147-142 in the individual quarter-final, shooting 12 10s in the process. Trisha Deb will also contest the individual semi-finals on Saturday.

Elsewhere, there was disappointment for the Iraqi squad as big medal hope and World Cup silver medallist Fatimah Almashhadani went out to Sri Ranti of Indonesia in the 1/16 eliminations. Her sister Rand is shooting in the recurve eliminations tomorrow.

I wrote earlier this year pondering if the Korean team intended to dominate compound archery as they do recurve archery, and it seems to be coming to pass. Korea took all recurve golds available in the last two Asian Games, and have stated they hope to win between four to six golds here from the eight available in recurve and compound. Senior coach Jang Yung-Sool said, in typical Korean style, “All our archers are in good form, but I have advised the athletes to avoid excessive excitement because there are more events to prepare for.”

Full results can be found here. The shoot continues with the recurve team and individual eliminations tomorrow.

Brief YouTube news piece about the world record here.

Early-doors picture of the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field via Fivics Korea:

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Archery at the Asian Games – Day 2

24 September, 2014

 

Jung Dasomi (pic by Yonhap News)

 

INCHEON, Korea: The Asian Games recurve ranking rounds were completed today. Both men and women shot a two-day full FITA round to decide the ranking – a decision of the KAA which contrasts with the now normal 70m ranking round in World Archery sanctioned international competition.

The full results are here. No particular surprises as to who came top – the Korean men’s team qualified one-two-three-four with Lee Suengyun taking top honours with 1377.  Oh Jin-Hyuk and Ku Bonchan were tied for second place with 1362 points, but the Olympic champion advanced on total tens scored (although he shot less X’s).  This means that Oh and Lee will contest the individual competition, as the rules only allow for two per country per gender; all three will contest the team competition. Kim Woojin shot 1353, good enough for fourth place but not good enough to make either the team or the individual knockout stage.

In the women’s competition, a Korean one-two-three means Jung Dasomi and Chang Hye-Jin will advance to the individual competition with scores of 1364 and 1359. It appears they will be joined in the team event by “elder sister” Joo Hyun-Yung, who only qualified 13th but squeezes Lee Tuk-Young out of the team event on previous results under the complicated KAA rules. Jung Dasomi was sanguine about the system in place, which sees at least one team member squeezed out for good. “The individual result doesn’t matter. Whoever goes out there to fight (as the team), we will give it everything.”

The main challengers to the Koreans for medals here are China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and India, who all recorded top ten placings. Indian superstar Deepika Kumari placed a strong 8th, but the rest of the Indian women’s recurve team floundered and the team only managed fifth place. Top Malaysian pro and World Cup medallist Khairul Anuar Mohamad managed a strong sixth place in the men’s competition.

The compound individual and team eliminations start tomorrow, just after midnight here in Europe.  There have already been controversies over the venue, but now there are further fears about the weather disrupting the competition, with Typhoon Fung-Wong battering parts of the east Asian coast and currently approaching south Korea. According to the organisers, the competition will go ahead unless “the target cannot be seen or the target is knocked over by wind and rain.” [waahh! – Ed]  Although Chang Hye-Jin was noticably bullish about the situation after the ranking round: “I hope the wind blows harder tomorrow.” she said.

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KAA rebuilds Incheon AG archery field after “not good enough” complaints

23 September, 2014

via AFP / Zee News.

Incheon: South Korea`s wealthy archery association has taken matters into its own hands by hastily upgrading an Asian Games venue and providing its own meals following a number of complaints.

The association said it was spending tens of thousands of dollars putting up a giant TV screen and covering the archery venue`s media area, which was open to the elements.

The body is also providing meals to officials and volunteers, claiming lunchboxes given by organisers — who have already suffered a salmonella scare — were out of date.

“The new awning has been put up over the media zone and construction is still underway to put up a giant screen on the left side of the arena,” a spokeswoman told AFP Tuesday.

“We are spending several tens of millions of won for the project. There were complaints from reporters that it was impossible to see computer monitors and even see the giant screen on the right side, due to sunlight.”

 She said the archery body took action after its chairman, Kia boss Chung Eui-Sun, heard complaints about the new Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field.

“We decided to fund the project ourselves since we understood organisers had no additional budget allocated for such new project,” she said.

“We thought the project was necessary given South Korea`s status as an archery powerhouse… we just wanted to provide better experience for archery lovers and did not want to cause any trouble with organisers.”

Games organisers have explained the lunchboxes were not out of date but mislabelled, and that they are now giving cash instead of meals to workers on the site.

They added that they spent about $180,000 building the venue at the request of the archery association, which did not ask them to make any additions.

Organisers had to dump dozens of lunchboxes prepared for athletes after they detected food poison salmonella.

Archery is likely to be a big Asian Games medal-winner for South Korea, who won three out of four Olympic golds at London 2012.

This is crazy. I literally can’t imagine this happening anywhere else. I have no idea who specced out the field or how it ended up like that, but it certainly appears to be an enormous loss-of-face by the organisers – and an indication of how much power is wielded by the KAA with Kia & Hyundai’s backing behind it.

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Most of the archery ranking round was completed today, with some familiar names at the top of the pile.  Check out all the running results here.

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what does your indoor range look like?

13 August, 2014


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These photos show the archery hall (more specifically, kyūdo hall) built by FT Architects for Kogakuin University at their campus in west Tokyo last year. The brief was to build a inspiring venue with 100m² of uninterrupted, column-free floor space, using locally sourced timber.

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The roof is constructed of Japanese cyprus, a timber latticework with straight mortise and tenon joints using furniture-grade wood in a meticulous arrangement. According to the architects:

We have salvaged the purity of standard Japanese timber composition, just made up of horizontals and verticals, which has been somewhat disregarded ever considering that the advent of modernism in Japan.

(although *really* traditional Japanese woodworking doesn’t use any nuts and bolts at all, as I understand)

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The very light but strong design seems particularly appropriate to the intended use. Whether by accident or design. the ends of the vertical and diagonal beams are split in a manner reminiscent of arrow nocks. If that was the intention, this wouldn’t be the first purpose-built archery building to do this; the Sydney Olympic Archery Centre has nock motifs on the upper end of the roof beams:

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Photo by Peter Miller

The same firm also built a boxing hall on the same campus, using similar materials but in an appropriately more brutal, weighty style:

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It’s very rare that archers in the west  – or any sportspeople, frankly – get to train in such inspiring purpose-built spaces like these. Yeah, I’m jealous.

(Pics and information via http://www.archivitamins.com/)

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Interview: Crispin Duenas

5 August, 2014

Crispin Duenas at official practice for World Cup Wroclaw 2014. Photo: WELLS/WORLD ARCHERY

Crispin Duenas at official practice for World Cup Wroclaw 2014. Photo: WELLS/WORLD ARCHERY

 

On the eve of the final World Cup stage of the year in Wroclaw, Crispin Duenas of Canada took some time out from official practice to answer my questions. Thanks Crispin! 

So, we’re almost on the start line in Wroclaw, you have a chance of making the grand final… how are you feeling?

I’m feeling confident that I can still make it to the final. I have made it to the medal matches in world competition before so this is no different than any of those previous situations.

What does official practice day for a World Cup event look like for you?

It just consists of getting used to where my target is, making sure that all of my equipment is good to go, meeting my target-mates and finding out what colour nocks they are shooting; I don’t want to have any confusion with arrows that have the same fletching and nock colour in the target.

What is the most satisfying part of the sport to get right?

The most satisfying thing is consistently executing a nice relaxed but strong shot. When everything is relaxed, my arrows never miss the centre of the target.

Do you have any ideas as to how to raise archery’s profile?

I think the proper steps to raising archery’s profile are already being taken. Aside from the movies in Hollywood, World Archery has made the viewing of World Cups and World Championships extremely easy for anyone with a computer. Our eliminations are easy for anyone to understand, as well.

Can you give us a practical archery tip that you follow yourself? 

There’s a time for experimenting and a time for performance. Know when you’re supposed to do each and stick to your plan.

Is there a piece of advice you wish you’d given to yourself ten years ago?

Always keep a calm head. Temper tantrums really get you nowhere on the archery field.

What sacrifices have you made for archery?

The biggest sacrifice I’ve made for archery is the amount of time I spend at home. I don’t get to see my family all the often, and usually there will be family events where I can’t go because I’m away at a tournament or training.

How do you deal with frustration?

I deal with frustration by just reminding myself that archery is a game of precision and being frustrated or tense will not help my shooting. It’s just better to stay calm and relaxed when things aren’t going my way.

Do you believe in luck?

I believe there is some extent of luck on the shooting field. A great example of this is in set play; an archer with a lower overall raw score can still win a match in terms of set points.

What’s your earliest memory of archery?

My earliest memory of someone shooting a bow was from when I watched Robin Hood on TV. Other than that, I really didn’t see real archers until I started archery lessons at the age of 13.

What’s your favourite sport apart from archery and why?

My favourite sport outside of archery (that I practice) is road biking. For me it’s a great workout, but it’s peaceful when I’m cycling alone and just keeping my pace up. On the other hand, I love watching all the sports during the Olympics, both summer and winter. Seeing athletes push themselves to be the best motivates me to be better.

You’re a musician, aren’t you? Tell me about that.

Well I wouldn’t really call myself a musician. I do, however, like playing my instruments in my spare time. The two that I mainly play now are the guitar and piano. I also play the flute, trumpet, and drums. It’s pretty much another form of relaxation for me.

What were the last three tracks you listened to?

The last three tracks I listened to were “Chasing the Sun” by Sara Bareilles, “Hall of Fame” by The Script, and “Kings and Queens” by Thirty Seconds to Mars.

What can you cook?

I can cook several different dishes (my girlfriend loves it when I cook omelettes, so she tells me 😉 ) but I think the best food I cook is steaks on a charcoal BBQ. My parents really trust my cooking of a steak and will always hand that duty off to me.

Crispin Duenas at official practice for World Cup Wroclaw 2014. Photo: WELLS/WORLD ARCHERY

Photo: WELLS/WORLD ARCHERY


Follow Crispin on Twitter here. 

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belomancy schmelomancy

23 July, 2014

Well, you learn something new everyday. Belomancy is the art of divination (predicting the future) with arrows – from the Greek word belos, meaning arrow or dart. From Wikipedia:

Belomancy was anciently practised at least by Babylonians, Greeks, Arabs and Scythians…. The arrows were typically marked with occult symbols and had to have feathers for every method. In one method, different possible answers to a given question were written and tied to each arrow. For example, three arrows would be marked with the phrases, God orders it me, God forbids it me, and the third would be blank. The arrow that flew the furthest indicated the answer. Another method involves the same thing, but without shooting the arrows. They would simply be shuffled in the quiver, worn preferably on the back, and the first arrow to be drawn indicated the answer. If a blank arrow was drawn, they would redraw.

Righty ho. I can’t do clout-y distance shooting here in London, but in the spirit of experiment, I gave the second method a go. First, I put my quiver on. I marked three of my arrows with tags: ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Maybe’, and asked the gods: “Should I go and buy an ice-cream?”.

I turned away, shuffled them out of sight, dramatically drew one from the quiver, and…

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...I drew ‘No.’

Now I’m sitting here without any ice-cream. Well, I’m not trying that again.

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170 years ago…

14 July, 2014

 

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Picture via http://austenettegallery.files.wordpress.com/

 
Just been reading the Rules & Regulations of Thirsk Bowmen*, an archery club in Yorkshire, England, published in 1845. Thirsk Bowmen exists today, but the current club apparently has no direct connection with the 19th century club. The committee structure, voting in, and roles and responsibilities are entirely familiar to any member of a sports or social club today. But there were some interesting sections:

1) The official ‘season’ was outdoor only and ran from the first Tuesday in May to the last Tuesday in September. Only gentlemen were allowed, and the cost per year was ten shillings and sixpence – approximate cost relative to wages in 2014: around £400. No word about indoor shooting.

2) Shooting was permitted on Tuesdays and Fridays starting at 5 o’clock. All arrows had to be marked with their owners initials or they did not score – a rule that persists in the UK and worldwide.

3) Every Tuesday archers shot nine dozen arrows – four dozen at 100 yards, three dozen at 80 yards, and two dozen at 60 yards. (A similar imperial round called a St. George, which has three dozen at each distance, is still shot in the UK). Maximum score using five zone scoring would be 972. Archers shot three arrow ends. Given that sunset in May in Yorkshire is around 8pm, they would have to get moving pretty quickly to get the round in before dusk.

4) The highest score each week would be made ‘captain of the target’, and get to hold a silver medal for the week. To encourage all archers, a handicap system existed – if you had won once in a season, you got four points removed from your score for the next and all subsequent weeks – twice in a season, eight points removed; three times, sixteen points and so on.

5) These Tuesday shoots were compulsory – unless you could prove you were at least ten miles outside of Thirsk, you were fined sixpence (relatively, about £20) for every shoot you missed! Swearing incurred a similar penalty. Turning up without all your equipment incurred a stiffer fine of a shilling (about £40).

6) Every year in September there was a ‘Grand Annual Meeting’. The highest score of the day would receive a silver bugle and the title ‘Captain Of The Year’, the best gold (nearest the centre) would receive a silver arrow and the title ‘Lieutenant Of The Year’ – and the last place finisher would receive a ‘Wooden Spoon’ and the title ‘Master Of The Green’. Yes, that’s right – archery puns haven’t improved much in the past 170 years.

7) Gambling on results was clearly a problem – the rules go into some detail about not letting betting corrupt the ‘manly amusement’, and a rule existed that any wagers discovered would have to be forfeited to club funds – although sweepstakes of up to five shillings (about £200) were allowed with prior permission of the Secretary.

*A copy of these rules sold at Bonhams in Harrogate for £192 in 2007.