Hi everybody!
This weekend (1/2
December), ArcheryGB hosted their Indoor Extravaganza at the Ricoh
Arena in Coventry. It was the Junior Nationals and the Back2Back
shoot off on Saturday, and the Senior Nationals on Sunday. My friend
Chris and I entered the Senior Champs on Sunday and Chris drove us
up for the afternoon session.
This was by far the
largest shoot I’ve ever been to, the venue was huge with over 900
archers shooting across the 2 days! When I walked into the hall, I
was a little blown away by how many targets there were and how many
archers were taking part!
We were early as the
roads were clear on the way up, so we signed in, set our equipment up
and had a wander around the trade stalls. Wales Archery, Merlin and
TheArcheryCompany had mobile shops on display among other retailers,
so I treated myself to a few bits and bobs I needed and grabbed a
brand new fletching jig from WA. The one I’ve been using is a
little simple and I could do with something better quality.
I managed to grab myself a nice little keepsake too :) ArcheryGB were selling 122cm FITA targets from the Olympics. These are full size coloured
targets that were ready for the Olympics but were never used, and
they are made of a waterproof treated fabric so they are more like a
canvas print than a paper target. They were only £2 so I grabbed one
which I’ll keep rolled up in my cupboard, and as and when
I ever get my own man-cave/workshop its going on the wall as a big
poster!
The announcements were
made for us to get ready, and then it was onto the line! The round
was a FITA18, inner 10 scoring. My shooting was fairly strong with
only 1 arrow dropped out of the gold, a high 8 where I punched the
release but no other issues. The lighting in the hall could’ve been
better, the targets were dimly lit and a little tricky to focus on.
The other side had black curtains behind the targets which made it
even worse I’m told. It was only a minor complaint though, my
target companions were great guys and we had a fun time shooting
together all day and chatting which took the edge off how big an
event it was!
I was a little behind,
but had a string of 10’s in the final half dozen and finished on
569.. the same as the last competition I shot – consistent! The
scores went in and we all waited anxiously for the announcement of
what was required to make the cut, the top 32 archers that go through
to the shoot offs for a chance at the final.... The announcements
came out and the list of names was put up... the cut was 567 and I
was through in 25th place!
The ladies shot the
Recurve and Compound eliminations first, so I had a chance to have a
quick practice and get ready. The call came out and I collected my
scorecards, and was drawn against an archer named Colin Geenes in the
shoot off. We exchanges scorecards and went up to the line to
shoot...
Oh..my..god. I didn’t
think it was possible to be so nervous! I usually get a pang of
nerves on a target shoot when you move from sighters to scoring but
nothing serious as it’s just me against the target – I score what
I score and that’s it. This time, I was shooting against
someone, and the pressure was on. I found it quite hard to
concentrate and was a bit wobbly! We drew 2 ends, and then Colin won
2 ends with a perfect 10 10 10 (very impressive shooting under
pressure, fair play!) and took the match 6 points to 2.
So the end result was I
came 25th in Gents Compound out of 105 competitors, and
joint 17th in the shoot off with the other archers knocked
out in the elimination.
I wasn’t disappointed
with this at all, as I was fully expecting to be knocked out in the
first round given the level of skill I was shooting against but I was
absolutely thrilled to have made the cut and the shoot offs on my
first ever National Championships, and hope I did my sponsor Wales
Archery proud on my first official outing shooting for them
It was my big shoot debut and it was great to see my name up on the
board with the leading British archers, albeit some way behind them
but still a great feeling!
Also worthy of note is
that I was very impressed with the way the shoot was run and
organised, everything was clear and the presentations, announcements
and control of the shooting was spot on, as was the quality of the
equipment and targets – a credit to the work party and organisers
for their efforts and hard work!
So - the usual
post-shoot performance review... I was happy with my shooting and
couldn’t think of anything I would criticise myself for
archery-wise, but one thing is for sure, I need to do a lot more
preparation for shooting under pressure before next year. My shooting
was good enough to carry me forwards a little further, it was
entirely nerves that gave me problems so I’m going to look into
techniques to strengthen this aspect of my shooting and improve my
mental game and focus.
