Tag Archives: roundup

September roundup

1 October, 2017

September opened with the World Cup Final in Rome; perhaps the most spectacular ever held, although they might fight that one out with Paris 2013.

I wrote a full write up here.  Plenty more coverage at World Archery. Beautiful setting and a carnival atmosphere.

               
It’s interesting how the crowd treat the Korean recurve stars; almost like gods dropped in from Valhalla. The rock star status is increasing.  Competition-wise: It was mostly one for the favourites, although Braden Gellenthien emerged from the strong field of compound men to take a deserved prize. The experts got it wrong. I mean, one so-called archery expert went zero for four on predictions, there…

Rome was swiftly followed by the World Archery Para Championships in Beijing, at the world’s largest centre for disabled sport. The WA media team is used to being crammed into tiny, too-busy spaces to work; here we had a three storey gym that fitted three basketball courts with room to spare. Quite a place; and a supportive and proud atmosphere like no other. You can read what I briefly wrote about it here.

I had a truly amazing and very lucky trip to Bhutan; the only country in the world where archery is the national sport. Am still writing that one up. More than that; I got over my altitude sickness just enough to make a short film along the way which hopefully should illustrate some of the archery culture  – traditonal and Olympic – in that beautiful country. It’s going to be edited over the next month or so and hopefully up and ready in November. Watch this space.

There was this fun thing with Kim Woojin and Chang Hyejin. The machine translated the title, ‘We are always working for those who believe’. I wasn’t sure, so I ran it past a Korean native who I sometimes get to translate things for me, and he said it was good. ‘We are always working for those who believe’. I love it. It’s something that hints at the work ethic of athletes, and the Korean national team in particular.

Easily my most popular post of the month was this egregious piece of very bad archery from a Disney Cruise Lines event. (I did say I was going to retire ‘bad archery’ from this blog, but you know, sometimes you’ve got to.  My favourite comment was from Carla Ferrari, who said “The longer you look at it, the worse it gets.” Heh. (Also on the frivolous front, L**s A******n put up a new video – and then took it down again).

What else? Patrick Huston won the GB National Series for the third year running. Woojin thumped in a new 90m record.  There were issues with booze. There was also the small matter of the World 3D Championships in France, and the start of the Youth World Championships in Rosario, ongoing – and with worrying storms – at the time of writing. There was this cool thing over on Dutch Target about archery and photography – two of my favourite things.

In just two weeks, the big dance starts in Mexico City – now a Ki Bo Bae free zone. Unfortunately, I can’t attend that one. Will be following along as best I can. Hopefully it will be a glorious celebration of the sport, just a few weeks after a terrible natural disaster. Let’s make it special.

 

 

 

May roundup

1 June, 2017

Pic: Dean Alberga

On the eve of Antalya, with archers starting to fly into Turkey, it’s time for a roundup of May’s news.

An incredibly busy international outdoor season started *properly* – read a very extended preview here. Shanghai brought chaos to the table, with big names falling and the Korean recurve machine in some disarray. Watch the individual finals again here. Steve Wijler, the Dutch rookie on his first international outing, triumphed.

The first full interview with Chang Hyejin in English after Rio finally appeared, with thanks to several people.  (There’s one with Kang Chae Young going to appear on Dutch Target at some point soon).  PJ Deloche came back from the wilderness to return to the big stage in Shanghai – and what a wilderness it was. Read his story here.  See Dean’s pics here from China here.

NBC are going to start broadcasting World Cup events in the USA. Whee!

The USA announced their team for the World Championships later this year, with a couple of less well-known faces making the cut, although it will be Brady Ellison’s sixth Worlds. Para-archery superstar Matt Stutzman, who had stated an intention to mix it with the regular first team in Rio last year, placed fifth in men’s compound.  In the USA, Songi Woo joined the staff to coach the women’s recurve team, having previously coached for Great Britain for several years.

photo via KiSik Lee on Facebook

Turkey had a good week on home turf in Istanbul at the Conquest Cup. Sjef Van Den Berg put up some cool pics from the Netherlands’ Archery Attack.  I wrote a whole load of stuff about archery and photography.

There was also this cool video about archer’s paradox. You can watch this rather good BBC doc about John Stubbs.  Chang Hyejin showed us all how to do social media.  Mauro Nespoli broke the Italian recurve ranking round record.  Oh, and a comp for schoolkids in Kentucky drew nearly 14,000 archers. Is that some sort of record?

You should also watch this video about an autistic archery superfan, made by the Olympic Channel.

All that, and this idiot who forgot to tie down an archery target too.

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A post shared by Heorhiy (@heorhiy_ivanytskyy) on

OK! Thats enough for now. See you in Antalya!. 🙂

 

49 days to go: archery and Olympics news

17 June, 2016

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There’s been some amazing action in Antalya this week, the final major tournament before Rio.  The main World Cup draw itself didn’t spring too may surprises, but there was a great deal indeed at stake if you had skin in the game in in the final team and individual qualifying tournaments.

The team qualifiers saw many surprises including many strong teams (Germany, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Belarus and the USA women) failing to pick up spots, and a handful of teams finally grabbing what the ranking suggested they deserved.  The final final individual knockout this morning saw more tough breaks and some incredible performances, such as Naomi Folkard of Great Britain battling back from 4-0 down to take the match and a spot. Absolutely boss picture by dutchtarget.com above. The competition continues with the usual Compound Saturday tomorrow and strugglesti… sorry, Recurve Sunday the day after that, when Korea are in every gold medal match. It’s looking ominous. 

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In Rio, the Olympic medal design has been launched with some eco-tastic ribbons, and look pretty damn good, if fairly straightforward. I guess after the recent debacles in Japan people are sticking to the knitting, design wise.  The organisers have also finally come up with the most important thing of all: a slogan. The Games tagline is  ‘A New World‘. Does the job, right?

Looking to the future, the United Arab Emirates are rather confident of making a dent in the archery universe at Tokyo 2020. I suppose if they throw enough money at it, who knows what could happen?

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I previously reported that the Indian archery team would be staying outside the Olympic Village (as more than one team might be doing).  This plan has apparently now been nixed, apparently due to the threat of Zika virus.

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The doping ban on Canadian international Jay Lyon has been upheld and he is suspended for two years. He’s not very happy about it, and gave a detailed interview to the Winnipeg Sun.  He was already unlikely for Rio, but the Canadian teams failed to win any team berths in Antalya this week and will be sending just one man to Rio (Crispin, I presume).

Also, Oscar Ticas of El Salvador has been banned for a year, for an unspecified doping offence.

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Lancaster Archery has an interesting feature about Brady Ellison, with some choice quotes as usual:

“The benefits (of being an Olympic athlete) are mostly that of personal accomplishment – not financial or material things, although once I was recognized and got out of a speeding ticket.”

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This weeks greatest Olympian: the only one on the list not still with us: Hubert Van Innis, from an Olympic era when nations basically set up as many of whatever tournaments they fancied. Sounded like quite a guy. The great-great-grandfather of Sarah Prieels, too.

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The Archery Blogger has an interview with Bryony Pitman, who came within a match or two of an Olympic place in Antalya this morning.

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Finally, someone alerted me to this full length (2hr plus) feature about traditional & barebow archery technique called The Push. I haven’t seen all of it, but it seems to be a well produced and well-thought out piece.  You can watch The Push right here.

Bye!

77 days to go: archery & Olympics news

20 May, 2016

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MAY 1: In this handout image provided by the World Archery Federation, Larry Godfrey of Great Britain shoots in the recurve men team bronze medal match during the Hyundai Archery World Cup on May 1, 2016 in Shanghai , China. (Photo by Dean Alberga/World Archery via Getty Images)

Larry Godfrey (Photo by Dean Alberga/World Archery via Getty Images)

In these weeks leading towards the ‘big dance’ in Rio and increasing coverage for the sport, I am going to try and give some shape to my archery blog / social media ’empire’ (ha!) by doing a proper round up of things once a week, in the manner of Ollie Williams’ much-missed Frontier Sports.  The plan is: every Friday at some point. Or more. Enjoy.

The last-ever World Cup stage in Medellin wrapped with Korea unbeaten in recurve finals matches, the first stage win for Brady Ellison since Lausanne 2014, and a clutch of gold medals for Sara Lopez. Full coverage here.  The Brady final match, displaying the sort of dominant, steely World Cup confidence Ellison showed in 2010/11, is worth another watch. The Korean recurve machine wasn’t looking entirely bulletproof, but the wall held, and no-one proved capable of giving them a close match on Sunday. Antalya will hopefully be interesting.

Next week is the European Championships in Nottingham, UK, the last continental qualifier for the big dance. Although given the relative lack of press coverage so far, you’d be forgiven for not knowing it was on. I’ll be up there for the finals. See you there.

On the World Archery website, this week’s best Olympic archer of all time is Michele Frangilli, in at number 8. What a dude. Watch that draw right here:

A somewhat lively, topic-wandering discussion has erupted over at Archery Talk on the series.

No big surprises as India named their women’s team for Rio. After six stages of selection trials held over months, the Archery Association of India picked Deepika KumariBombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi to represent India in Brazil. The men’s team are still looking for three spots in Antalya, they currently have just the one. World Archery roundup here, something from the Indian media here.

The Times Of India ran with the squad’s visit to a Hindu temple in Tirupati to pray for divine blessing immediately after selection – Archers don’t mind divine intervention.

Several other nations are close to picking their final threes and ones: Australia wrap it up this weekend.

General Olympics news: as the doping scandals and calls for Russia to be chucked out of Rio rumble on, there is better news about the Zika virus, even as Korea and others unveil mosquito-repelling Rio uniforms.  It wasn’t all this doom and gloom a few months before London 2012, was it? Oh yeah… so it was.

Interesting, mildly candid interview with Team GB’s Larry Godfrey in the Bristol Post, although it couldn’t resist a Robin Hood reference, dooming it in Infinite Curve eyes to the absolute lowest of the lazy journalist low. Must try harder. Or just stop altogether.

Is Archery Really As Dope A Skill As It Is In Marvel Films? Leaving aside Betteridge’s Law Of Headlines, this is an entertaining – and by the usual standards, reasonably well researched – article about archery in popular culture. And they don’t mention L**s A****sen once!  Bonus points!

Gratuitous Ki Bo Bae reference of the week? An English-voiceovered chat with her by FISU, home of the Universiade, end of last year. This will get the most clicks of any link on this post, by the way. I know. It tells me. 🙂

What else have we got? Oh yeah. A cat called Jake Kaminski. (From here. Pic by Kaela Thompson).

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Bye!

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picture roundup

21 May, 2014

Don’t forget, The Infinite Curve’s archery blogging world is as much based around Facebook and Twitter as it is this here page. So if you aren’t following me on social media, you should. Because you’ll miss out on all this cool stuff:

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This thing, via goniart.com. I know not what it means, but it’s great.


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Mariana Avitia placed fifth in individual recurve at the Medellin World Cup. read more about it here.  Picture via @conade.

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire hits London’s buses. Woe betide anyone getting off.

 

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Crispin Duenas of Canada on his way to winning the Gator Cup this month. Photo exclusive by Helen Claudio.

 

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Aida Roman, Mariana Avitia, and Alejandra Valencia in miserable conditions at the Mexican Grand Prix earlier this month.

 

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Joo Hyun-Jung of Korea shoots a Robin Hood in practice for the Medellin World Cup. In the ten. At 70m.

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Beautiful 3D printed arrow-fletching rig. Via this company.

 

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Got to make sure they have that good form down early. (via Carina Rosenvinge Christiansen)

 

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Archery in Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C., 1954. (via www.chronicallyvintage.com).

 

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Finally, a target smiley, from the ever-awesome @saralopezb24.

See you outdoors. John x