ARCHERY ACT
WORLD ARCHERY INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2018
The Australian team’s indoor world championship campaign began with a different tournament. The 2018 Vegas Shoot. Most of the team treated the Vegas Shoot as a warm up for Yankton. It allowed the team to acclimatise to the time zone change and prepare themselves in a competitive environment.
With mixed successes and a renewed determination, we departed the Nevada desert on Monday via a variety of flights to a freezing Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to hop on a bus headed to Yankton. However, not all of the team arrived as planned. The junior boys compound team, Harri, Remy and Hamish, along with Sarah, were delayed departing Las Vegas and therefore missed their connecting flights in Denver. They were forced to remain in Denver and unable to get onto another flight until the following day. Harri and Hamish managed to get onto an early flight, however their equipment did not. The bows arrived late that evening along with Sarah and Remy.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team had arrived and had settled into their hotel which was conveniently located only 200m walk to the tournament venue. Tuesday was an unofficial training day. Those that were present and had their equipment, spent the morning training. The men’s recurve team, Astin, Ryan and Taylor, trained together as a team for the first time with encouraging form.
With the whole team now in Yankton, the official practice day began on Wednesday. Each athlete and team official sorted out their accreditation, and the boys compound team was able to practice together, developing rotations and timings.
Thursday was qualification day and the 1/16th rounds. Recurve shot in the morning with Astin, Ryan, Taylor, James, Sarah and Clare shooting first. Sarah maintained a top 10 placing for most of the round, however a bad end resulted in her placing 15th. Clare was sick throughout both the Vegas and Yankton tournaments, she was unable to shoot to her potential placing 18th. The placings resulted in the Australian girls facing each other in the first round of matchplay, with Sarah taking the match 7-1.
Taylor shot incredibly well, with a competition personal best 590 which placed him in a tie for 9th. A coin flip decision placed him into 11th going into the elimination rounds, in which he won his first match 7-1. Astin and Ryan both shot well during the qualification, however both missed out on the top 32 cut by a small margin. Astin placed 34th and Ryan 37th. The men’s recurve team placed 7th. James got off to a rough start but recovered, managing to finish in 19th place. He then lost his first match after a tight competition which was decided by a shootoff.
The compounders shot their round in the afternoon, with Remy, Harri, Hamish, Anna, Madeline and Sherry shooting. Sherry had developed a shoulder injury on the previous day and she retired from the qualification round after shooting only 6 ends. Whilst this placed her in 26th and last place, it allowed her to shoot the 1/16th round, which she lost 145-142. Maddy shot well but the competition was tough, she placed 12th which gave her a bye for the first match. Anna unfortunately had equipment issues which she was not able to resolve, she placed 20th and was defeated 145-141 in her first match.