This my favourite picture from the champs, of Maja Jager hugging her coach after winning the gold medal:
Can’t explain exactly why it’s my favourite, out of all the amazing images (thanks to Dean Alberga and Bogensport for amazing work as usual). The sheer expression of joy after all that work holding it in and controlling it.
It will also be remembered for some truly horrendous wind in the midweek. Read about what Brady and the American team had to say about it here. And watch the compounders dealing with it here:
But this image will be the one that people remember from 2013:
It shows the last two arrows in a shoot off to decide the gold and silver medals in women’s recurve; Maja Jager’s on the left, and Xu Jing’s on the right. It’s simpler if you just watch it. Jager’s was declared the winner, and she won the gold medal. The rules say that if the shoot-off arrows are within two millimetres of each other’s distance to the centre, a second shoot-off has to take place. Jager’s is clearly closer, but the result was called very quickly, and the arrows pulled. I’m not suggesting the result was actually wrong – I’m not a judge, and I wasn’t there – but it appears close enough to warrant a more detailed inspection. Even on WA’s homepage it mentions she “won by a millimetre“. The last thing a minority sport like archery needs is even the slightest doubtful bit of judging, frankly. Not to diminish Maja Jager’s amazing achievement. Great job.
The World Archery Congress is in session in Belek just before the World Championships starts. I’ve watched it, so you don’t have to. There’s quite a lot to talk about, but I’m going to summarise the news I’ve gathered so far:
The FITA round is now called the 1440 round.
Recurve archers will now shoot a 70m round for qualification in international competition. One distance. Same for para-archery. This, I’m guessing, will mean a decline in the full-FI… sorry, the 1440 round as the international standard in archery, which seems a shame for sentimental reasons if nothing else. I mean, I hate moving targets as well, but…
The acronym FITA is vanishing across the board, as FITA is now called the World Archery Federation. (Somehow ‘WAF’ rounds don’t have the same impact. It’s a clumsy and ugly acronym to say.)
Para-archery categories are now Open Recurve, Open Compound and Open W1 for men and women. “After a consultation with all parties it seems that there is a consensus that the merge of standing and W2 will give a more competitive and universal competition at Paralympics and major events. Also the creation of an open W1 event will permit the more severe disabled to have a good and appropriate competition.”
Compound archers will shoot cumulative score in indoor matches to differentiate from recurve matches.
Half-FITA has been removed as a valid round in international competition. (BIG deal, this one. )
‘Field Archery Committee’ will now be called ‘Field and 3D Committee.’
Procedure for determining ties in Field Archery will now favour most 6s before most 5s.
There was a vote for whether the Falkland Islands should be admitted as a member organisation (amongst others). If you aren’t aware, there is, and has long been a sovereignty issue between the UK and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic since 1833, which culminated in the Falklands War in 1982, with the loss of almost a thousand British and Argentine soldiers. Recently, the election of the nationalist-leaning Kirchner dynasty in Argentina has revived the issue of the ‘Malvinas’, as they are referred to there.
The Argentinian delegate piped up and read from the ‘Malvinas’ script, claiming that they were a province of Argentina, and recommending the IOC get involved. Dave Sherratt from Team GB weighed in in response. The vote in favour was carried by a massive majority – I think only the Argentinian voted against it by what I could see. Tom Dielen, the head of WA, clearly stated that the political issues had no place in the sport.
Whatever you think about the sovereignty issue (and I personally don’t take an strongly British-nationalist view of it) this tiny hoohah was basically a clunking, ugly, pointless bit of political point scoring in the wrong arena for the wrong reasons.
Mixed team events are being pushed hard by WA for their ‘universality’; they were trying to get them in for the Olympics in Rio 2016 but it’s not happening, but may well happen in Tokyo 2020.
Archery GB membership up 27% (42k from 33k) since 2008. Similar growth in France & Spain. France are trying to get to 100,000 members by next year.
ATA in America says there are 18.9 million archers in the US of which 10m are target archers and 38% are women.
World Archery does forex transactions back and forth between Swiss francs to maintain their finances. Crikey.
National championships will eventually have to include men & women. Not sure if this is an issue anywhere… Saudi?
Archery TV is the second most popular YouTube channel among international sport federations. Go Archery TV!
WA are planning a World Archery Center in Lausanne for 2015. Easton are putting up some of the money.
The archery NGBs of India and Ecuador are having problems with their respective ministries of sport, who want to impose their own presidents and / or rules. WA is supporting full independence for member organisations.
I was there. For the recurve day. Bit late to tell you, I know. I would loved to have live-blogged and live-tweeted this for you all, or at the least got a report up the same night, but technology let me down, plus I had promised Mademoiselle Infinite Curve a proper weekend in Paris and we had dinner to eat and cobbled lamplit boulevards to walk, and I’ve been snowed under with work since I got back from that lovely, lovely city. Besides, you all watched it on the stream, right? Right? Oh, you didn’t. Well, here’s your chance:
There’s links to the quarters and the compound day off that video. You can get the results here. What can I tell you that a proper fancy camera setup and a bunch of professionals cannot? I’ll give it a try. This is a stitched-photo panorama of our seat, one of 2,500 that were, staggeringly, completely sold out, with hundreds more watching from the gaps in the fences. Paris has turned out for this.
The light was a bit flat – the weather was the only disappointment, overcast all day. I went to Lords last year, which was good but genteel, atmosphere -wise. I never, never thought that I’d see an archery tournament start with Mexican waves rolling round the arena. With call-and-response “lets see how much noise the people dans lerouge block can make!” roars echoing off the still Trocadero fountains. With people with their faces painted with the tricolour cracking beers at 10.30 in the morning. I never thought I’d hear shooters introduced like boxers, and hear an archery crowd drumming their collective feet on the stands in joy. Just amazing. You don’t get that from the stream. I just tried.
I also never thought I’d see archers actually mobbed by fans wanting autographs. Like, rock-star mobbed. I took the below pic of Oh Jin-Hyek as he was basically running away from people demanding he sign this and pose for this. A different world. People were excited to get close.
French recurve archer Gaël Prevost pressing the flesh. (or GAAAAAAAEEEELLL!!!! PREEEEEEVOOOOOSSSTTT!! as the French announcer had it). He was damn good. He was one arrow away from beating Uh-Oh. He’s so tall. All the ladies like him too. There’s a really good YouTube piece about him here.
They wouldn’t let me anywhere near the ‘photo line’ this time (I’m not surprised – there were real photographers there) so I couldn’t get anything like the pics I got in Wroclaw. The longest lens I own got a couple of pics of Alejandra Valencia, who was in imperious, lion-roaring mode. So damn good. She’s our new favourite. Drawing that power from someplace *else*.
The little details were great. Brady thanking God before each round with those fingers to the sky, but punching the air to thank himself and his own talent after winning that bronze. Afterwards, he handed his third place cheque to a tall kid in the crowd. Still trying to find out who.
The parade of failures, equipment and otherwise. Still trying to work out what happened to Deepika Kumari when she failed to shoot that arrow. You can watch it again here.
The ironic cheers, that got bigger and bigger, for Jean-Pierre, the line judge – perhaps because he was the last Frenchman left on the stage. Everyone in on the joke. Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Khairul Anuar Mohamad – or rather ‘Joyeux Anniversaire’, of course. Enjoying ‘dix!’ more than ‘ten!’ – the harder plosive sound. There was even some better music between sets (which I moaned about previously) – was pleased to hear Yelle’s Je Veux Te Voir at one point. The DJ was kind enough to save ‘Gangnam Style‘ until Oh had won the individual. He was probably eyeing that up on the cue list all day, wondering when he should break it out. Perhaps he was hoping Oh would do the dance on the platform. He was disappointed.
Also, there was the little thing that few people saw, when [a certain well-known archery coach] dropped the medal draped over his shoulder that his charge had just been awarded and it hit a stone statue by the arena exit (I could hear the clang from fifteen feet back) and he turned away from the crowd to try and rub the mark off it…. oh, joy. That was good.
I had a glorious time, and I’m wondering if an atmosphere like that is ever going to be replicated again. I particularly wonder how the World Championship finals next week are gonna compare – no chance, probably. By my calculations, they did at least €100,000 in ticket sales, and the sponsors must have been pleased. There is an audience for big archery events, and it can be found and nurtured into creating an amazing day of sport.
Yay! Danish international and recent World Cup bronze medallist Carina Rosenvinge was kind enough to answer my questions as she prepares for the World Championships in Belek in a couple of weeks time. You can find her personal website here and her excellent Twitter feed here.
How’s it going?
Things have been stressed lately. On July 1st I started my education to become a sales assistant. It takes 2 years and it has me working 37 hours a week, which doesn’t always work well with archery. Fortunately the department store I work for has agreed to fewer working hours for a couple of weeks so that I had time to practice for Wroclaw and also for the World Championships next month in Turkey. I now work around 25 hours a week with a couple of days off, which allows me to practice more. I also recently moved into my own apartment. I used to live with my parents, so it’s been a lot of adjusting to new things on my end. Things are starting to calm down – but Christmas is just around the corner and that’s ALWAYS a busy time of year when you work in a store.
Tell us about Wroclaw.
Due to working a lot I didn’t feel well prepared for Wroclaw. I managed to find my way in to making good shots during practice and my individual eliminations and made really good shots and scores during my matches. I made it to 1/16 with a good match against Kumari, with 28-27-28-29-17 on my scoreboard. I was happy with that! As for teams, we couldn’t have asked for a better test run before the World’s. Anne Marie, Maja and I shot teams way back in our cadet years in a European champs back in 2007. We make a great team. We have a lot of fun both on and off the field and it payed off in Wroclaw with a bronze medal. We shot really good against the Russians all things considering. Tricky field with tricky wind, “new” team and all of us new to the World Cup scene when it comes to shooting for metal.
You are gearing up for the World Championships. What does a practice day look like around now?
My practice days are very different! I’ve had a hard time adjusting to the working schedule and it cost me quite a set back on the field. A lot of things happen causing me to practice differently than what I would prefer. It also depends on whether or not I’m working. I shoot for 4-5 hours, mostly on 70 meter. Tomorrow I have a day off and I will be shooting a full FITA round. This coming weekend we have a training weekend with the national coach.
Have you ever been to Korea?
I have been in Korea a couple of times, both for a training camp at Coach Kim’s archery training school and also for the World Champs back in 2009. It was my second seniors tournament and I came back to Denmark with a 7th place. I was only 18 and I was so excited!
Is there anyone else’s shooting you really admire?
I admire lots of other shooting athletes! To be a top archer – and any other athlete for that matter – you have to put in a lot of time and effort and I admire anyone who has the strength and will power to put up with the frustrations that follow with pursuing your dream. It’s hard work. It’s blood, sweat and tears but if you want it enough, it’s all worth it in the end.
Do you ever shoot field archery, 3D, compound, traditional archery etc. ?
I only shoot target archery.
Is archery growing in Denmark like everywhere else?
Denmark had an Olympic archery BOOM as a cause of the success we had at the 2012 Olympics. It was an amazing experience to compete in the Olympics and being able to do something for my sport and my country simply by doing what I love was great. Archery is fun!
Do you have any ideas how would you make international archery better for spectators?
I think it gets better time by time. At the Olympics the final field was probably as good as it gets. Stands for spectators on each side of the field and a big screen for cool video shots of the archers and the targets. It was a big set up, but it would be cool if it could be like that for every tournament.
So… why archery?
My brother did it and I was so sick and tired of him doing good and always being in the papers. I asked my mom if I would get in the paper if I did good in archery too. She said yes and I wanted to do archery. I also wanted to do and be good at something not a lot of other people do (in Denmark anyway).
What’s on your running playlist?
As in, for when I go running? Something LOUD with a good beat. Something Chris Brown and Rihanna, always. I mostly listen to Chris Brown, Rihanna and Trey Songz. I am an R’n’B kinda girl, for sure!
Tell us a Danish joke.
I don’t think it would translate all that well. I’m really more of a sarcastic kinda funny 😉
So myself and Mlle. Infinite Curve were having a coffee at lunchtime when she nudged me and said ‘Look what’s on the TV!”. Archery actually on the BBC news; Danielle Brown’s win at the AGB National Series followed by a familiar “you gonna do the Olympics then?” question, all on a proper BBC News 24 sports insert. Dani is always all kinds of awesome, and seeing her up there with Wiggo and Andy Murray instead of a mention in a tiny, tiny column at the back of the paper felt… good. Things have changed.
Piece for BBC Radio Bristol by Dan White about the Olympic legacy for archery in Britain, featuring an interview with Larry Godfrey. It mentions, incorrectly, that he came fourth in London 2012, when actually he was one arrow away from making the last eight – although that was the best performance by any of the senior squad. Larry did, however, come fourth in the ranking round, to which he said “To be ranked fourth highest in the world behind the three Korean archers was a great achievement but unfortunately they don’t give out any medals for that.”Unfortunately, Larry failing to make the last eight, despite some brilliant shooting, sealed the perception that the Team GB archers had failed, particularly after the avalanche of British gold medals that started immediately following the conclusion of the shoot. The success of the Paralympic squad added weight to both sides of the balance sheet, but the ‘podium funding’, the big government cash targeting the sports in which Britain has a strong chance at an Olympic medal, was cut. (I wrote a bit more about it here.) The current programme is focussed, somewhat controversially, on developing young talent, perhaps for a medal in 2020 or beyond.
So me and Mlle. Infinite Curve went up to Nottingham for the day to Wollaton Hall, home of Bruce Wayne, for the National Series final. “Kind of the British Championships” as I explained it to at least two people – although Michael Cauwe, from Belgium, won the men’s compound. It was a lot busier than last year in Oxford anyway. Many very familiar faces on and off the field. The ever-awesome Dani Brown won the women’s compound. You never know, hopefully AGB will fix the sound on the streaming. Good piece from the BBC with video here: we’ll let them off editing the shots of the compound targets into the recurve sections, I suppose… I can thoroughly recommend a Southern Indian restaurant in the centre of Nottingham called Kayals too.
Didn’t take that many pictures, but I was quite pleased with this one of Ashe Morgan‘s high ‘Korean’ draw. Enjoy.
