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by Gary Yamaguchi
The Youth
World Championships started with a real show – the Opening
Flag Ceremony. Teams lined up alphabetically behind their
flag, and marched across the spectator tents, then back around
to face the audience. Some teams were small, with as few as
two members, while others appeared to have the entire
compliment of three archers per division. 56 countries were
represented. With so many archers dressed in their country’s
uniform, and so many flags, it was a colorful, grand event.
Once the
shooting started, it soon became obvious who the strongest
countries were. The US archers pretty much dominated the
compound divisions. In the recurve division, the Koreans
posted the top scores. Joo-Wan Kim set a new Cadet
world record in the FITA with a 1380 and made this feat look
easy. Results for the FITA ranking round and the Olympic
Round Eliminations can be found by clicking on the following
link:
http://www.archery.org/ (Scroll down
to World Archery Youth Championships and click on the links to
NEWS, RESULTS, or PHOTOS. There is also a slideshow that can
be downloaded.)
Olympic
Rounds highlighted the archer’s mettle in head-to-head
competition. The highest seeded archers tended to advance,
but with only 12 arrows being shot over a single distance with
each match, there were plenty of upsets. Just about any
archer could put together a hot end. Two such ends together
could beat the best in the world! Winning scores in the later
recurve matches sounded like compound scores (115 to 118).
Single-arrow shoot-offs to break ties were common, especially
in the compound division. Many archers were driven to tears
after shooting stellar rounds, and losing by a point in a
shoot-off.
A highlight
of the event was the team rounds, where three-person teams
from each qualifying country competed in each category
(Cadet/Junior, Male/Female, Compound/Recurve). The top
sixteen teams were ranked based on the combined
individual FITA scores and placed on a single-round
elimination chart. Opposing teams had two minutes each to
shoot six arrows (two from each archer) on each end. Running
scores were shown on scoreboards below each target and updated
for each of four ends. Because cheering is encouraged, this
was a raucous event. Shouts of “USA! USA!” were interspersed
with “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie… Oy! Oy! Oy!” as well as
chants in other languages. The US sent compound teams to the
medal matches in every division, but all the US
recurve archers were eliminated prior to the medal matches.
Despite this, results were encouraging as many of the US
recurve teams placed higher than they had in past Junior World
tournaments. The Cadet Men’s recurve team lost to the Korean
team (the Koreans shot a world record tying score), gained
some valuable experience -- and arranged to exchange their
shirts.
The compound
Cadet women’s team of Paige Pearce, Kayla Harmeyer, and
Kailey Johnston set a new world record of 230 for a 24
arrow match (60 m distance) and finished first. Not to be
outdone, the compound Junior women’s team of Sarah Lance,
Kendal Nicely, and Samantha Pruitte also set a new
world record of 226 (70 m) and took the gold. Alexander
Sahi (Cadet men), Paige Pearce (Cadet women), and
Cody Thompson (Junior men) took gold individual medals
in compound.
On the
recurve side, Matthew Zumbo (11th, Cadet
men) and Miranda Leek (7th, Cadet women)
were the top US placements after the OR eliminations.
Peter Kelchner (31st, Junior men) and
Jessica Gibbs (24th, Junior women) were the top
US juniors. Arizonans Kiley Larrick (33rd,
Cadet women) and Nathan Yamaguchi (31st,
Cadet men) finished well, but with renewed respect and
resolve. In the team rounds, the Junior men’s team finished
in 7th place, the Cadet men’s team in 6th,
and the Cadet women’s team in 5th place. These
were very respectable finishes among a strong international
field.
In summary,
the US is still dominant in the compound category, but the
foreign competition in the recurve division is well ahead of
the US. However, the US program (particularly the Junior
Dream Team) is moving our youth in the right direction. With
continued support and patience the US should expect to be
competitive for both compound and recurve medals within a few
years.
The only
negative comment I have to say is that parents and
well-wishers coming to watch and support their archers during
the elimination rounds had limited visibility of the field and
were not allowed inside the secure fenced area as there was no
room. (editor's note)
Editor's Note: The Medal Matches were
held at Lindquist Field (home of the Ogden Raptors pro
baseball team stadium ) which allowed spectators free entry
with great seating to watch the Finals.
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