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Photos by Gary Yamaguchi
Story by Barb Larrick
The 2009 JOAD Nationals took place over July 4th
weekend in Downingtown, PA. A total of 267 archers
showed up, but one archer shot both recurve and compound
making it 268 competitors scoring.
The event was held at a soccer complex and the
fields were on different levels. This proved to be difficult
for many reasons. The winds were coming across the bowman/cub
field and down onto the Junior/Cadet field. This caused
swirling winds for many of the outside targets. The winds came
at different angels depending on where your target was
located. The wind socks located at center field would be
blowing straight back at the targets while the flags on the
targets were blowing a completely different direction. The
winds changed direction during ends being shot as well, making
it very difficult to judge. The different level fields also
made spectator viewing difficult as well. The shooting fields
faced West and thus the afternoon/evening sun was directly
into the shooters eyes, more so for left hand shooters then
the right hand shooters, but both had to contend with it.
The evening after official practice,
Lancaster Archery provided a free BBQ at their store in
Lancaster, PA which was about 45 minutes from the field. That
had to be the best BBQ I have ever had. It was also Coach
Lee’s birthday so the JDT kids presented him with a cake and
all signed a card for him as well.
On Friday night there were fireworks on the
field where the archery took place, but I am not sure how many
archers stayed because they expected 10,000 locals to be there
and many felt it would take too long to get out afterwards and
thus getting into bed too late. A group of about 50 or more
all decided to head to the Winner’s Circle for dinner that
night and everyone had a good time there.
The Arizona archers fared well despite the
tricky winds:
Karissa Yamaguchi,
Bowman Female Recurve, 1st place in the FITA with a
score of 1287 and 1st Place in a new event for the
Bowman called the Wand Shoot;
Mackenzie Kieborz,
Junior Female Compound, 7th place in
the FITA with a score of 1287 and 6th Place in the
Olympic Round;
Nathan Yamaguchi,
Cadet Male Recurve, 5th place in the FITA with a
score of 1179 and 1st Place in the Olympic Round;
Kiley Larrick,
Cadet Female Recurve, 5th place in the FITA with a
score of 1175 and 1st Place in the Olympic Round;
In the Olympic Rounds, Nate had to face the #1
seed from the FITA, Matt Zumbo and was able to win and advance
to the Gold Medal Match. Nate eventually won that match
against #3 seed Chris Luman. Kiley had to face the #2 seed
from the FITA, Heather Trafford to advance to the Gold Medal
Match. In the Gold medal match, Kiley was down by 3 points
after the 3rd end and tied it the last end. She was
shooting against the #1 seed, Miranda Leek. In the one arrow
shoot off, they both shot their arrows almost at the same
time. Kiley was able to shoot a 10 on the 9/10 line and
Miranda shot a 9 just outside the 10 ring giving Kiley the
Gold Medal.
Nathan’s and Kiley’s performance in the Olympic
Round proves that it really does not matter where you qualify
as long as you can handle the toe to toe pressure presented in
the Olympic Rounds.
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