Field Archery in the Cali World Games, Columbia.

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It started off like this in Barebow:







The World Games are meant for sports, or disciplines within a sport, that are not on the programme of the Olympic Games. At quadrennial intervals, they provide athletes with the opportunity to join with their countrymen and countrywomen from other sports, in the Olympic spirit, and compete as part of a national team at the highest level.

A multitude of popular and spectacular sports are represented in the World Games: from artistic and dance sports, to ball sports, martial arts, precision sports, strength sports, trend sports, and invitational sports. The World Games are the main event for the world’s best athletes in these sports – an event marked by search for excellence as well as by camaraderie across all boundaries.

While the IWGA explicitly adheres to all principles in the Olympic Charter, the World Games differ in one important aspect from the Olympic Games: the event is to be staged at already existing venues. This condition influences the composition of the World Games programme – not all sports feature necessarily on every edition.

The sport of archery, whose recurve division is an Olympic discipline, is represented at the World Games by the compound division and by field archery for the recurve and barebow divisions.

The recurve field archery division could see a battle between former world N°1 Brady ELLISON (USA) and current world field champion Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA), who displayed his great form earlier this month at the third stage of the Archery World Cup in Medellin, where he reached the bronze medal match.

On the women’s side, the favourites are world field champion Elena RICHTER (GER), runner-up Zoe GOEBBELS (BEL), runner-up from the last World Games Jessica TOMASI (ITA), Naomi FOLKARD (GBR), third at both the last World Games and the last world field championships, as well as Lisa UNRUH (GER), fourth at the last World Games.

The men’s barebow division features the top athletes in the world. Will world champion Sebastián JUANOLA (ESP) add another major title to his track record, in his first World Games? He will be challenged, among others, by Italy’s Giuseppe SAIMONDI, defending World Games champion and bronze medallist at the last world championships. Watch out also for Olivier ROY (FRA), 4th individually and who impressed in the team competition in Val d’Isere.

On the women’s side, competition promises to be tough between world champion Lina BJORKLUND (SWE) and Eleonora STROBBE (ITA), the defending World Games winner who settled for silver in Val d’Isere.

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Sebastián JUANOLA: “the award is being here”

Cali - Monday, July 29, 2013



Spanish archer Sebastián JUANOLA became barebow field archery world champion last year in Val d’Isere (FRA).

JUANOLA has just arrived in Cali to take part in the field archery competition at the World Games. He approaches the competition with a sense of accomplishment and a great deal of passion for his preferred hobby: the sport of archery.



Since winning the World Championships title last year in Val d’Isere, how is your life going and where have you competed?

My life is sadder ...he laughs… Because after obtaining the world champion title, you shoot with a kind of obligation; it’s not a hobby any more with some success at the end, it’s now about being present, non-stop! For the rest, my life is the same, I’m a farmer and regarding archery, I participated in a competition in Sweden and I still shoot in our national league.



As a world champion, what sorts of expectations do you bring to an event like the World Games?

We have often mentioned this, my team mate David and I: our award is being here. If we’re here it’s because we did things well, but thinking about whether the competition will go well or not is another story. We can shoot badly and win, as we can shoot well and lose. Our award is being here amongst 10 other world-class athletes in the world.

What are the World Games like for you so far?

For the moment we haven’t seen many things; we just arrived last night and we came to the training field to shoot some arrows. We’ll see what happens during the next two days, but for the moment, everything seems well organised. We are neophytes, with the consequent jet-lag and with some sleep to recover.

Have you given serious thought to taking part in the recurve or compound circuit competitions that are organised by World Archery?

No at all, I want to continue shooting as I do now. I have other objectives in life: my family and my business. Archery is a hobby only and as long as I continue seeing it as such, I’ll continue to shoot well. Whereas if I have to shoot as an obligation, I think that magic will be over. Here for instance, we can recognise professional archers from the others and we can feel the major pressure they have on their shoulders. This is perhaps what makes us more serene because even if we shoot worse than them, we’ll get the same thing. They compete for their salaries but for me, my salary is being here and our federation funding the trip, which is a great privilege.

Do you feel that barebow archers are missing some international recognition?

Yes but certainly because we don’t earn our lives with this and because we don’t aspire to participate in Olympic Games. Personally I have some international recognition but I miss some recognition at national level. In Spain, barebow is not considered as it is abroad, even less within field archery. We are like the poorest in archery.



How do you see the level in Spain within the different archery disciplines?

Archery is still trendy but people were and still are standing by within all the different disciplines, probably because there’s a lack of great victories. Nobody wants to shoot in recurve field archery; it’s as if field archery is a downgrade for some. Again, when we see what is going on in Europe and in the rest of the world, it’s a different story; there’s a fight for attending big international championships, while this is not the case in Spain. It’s like if what is going on in other countries was too far for Spaniard archers. David and I broke this trend a bit but people continue to perceive us differently because we are on top, not above the others; but for other archers we seem unreachable and they don’t even think about joining us. I think that if they would take archery as a hobby, they would have a different attitude, because if you don’t have fun when you shoot, then it’s not worth it!

And how do you see yourself: do you still have fun and do you feel like accomplishing more in this sport?

After winning the World Championships, I went through a bad moment. After the victory, I participated in a 3D archery tournament but my head didn’t follow: I shot as well as before but my head wasn’t there. It was a total disaster because I didn’t enjoy at all. It’s only after this bad moment that I realised it was due to my World Champion title. Now I have fun in attending competitions again, independently of whether I finish first, second or tenth. Again: the award is being here, it’s something unbelievable!

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Some preliminary pictures from Cali of the area of the field archery competition.

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These pictures from the first day (yesterday) come 'care of' Mel Nichols, the US coach.



The accompanying comment is:The field course is in the middle of Cali at a city park. It's wild here. House's, people every where and people stoping their cars and getting out to see the archers. It's definitely a first!

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Recurve archers Zoe GOBBELS (BEL), Laure DELFAU (FRA), Elin KATTSTROM (SWE) and Jessica TOMASI (ITA) at Parque San Antonio.





More Recurve women doing their job at this morning's qualifications: Brina BOZIC (SLO), Elena RICHTER (GER), Yuki HAYASHI (JPN), Valentina CONTRERAS (COL).

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Some pictures of the GB team:







US Team:

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Barebow archers Marjan PODRZAJ (SLO), Julián AGUIRRE (COL), David GARCIA (ESP) and Richard KLESMANN (GER) checking their scores.

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Field archery recurve women: Valentina CONTRERAS (COL) and Brina BOZIC (SLO) ready to shoot.





Field archery barebow men: Pasi AHJOKIVI (FIN), Marjan PODRZAJ (SLO), Franz HABERLER (AUT) and Bobby LARSSON (SWE) are fighting for the 4th and last qualifying spot in the Finals.






Lower part of the course at the ‪archery‬ competition.

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Barebow Results.

Top four go into head to head rounds.
Attached Images

Bobby Larsson pulled a bit of a coupe d'etat moving from 8th yesterday to second today to sneak into the top four. Victoria Williams was edged out by Andrea Raigel in a similar fashion.

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Recurve results:
Attached Images

Tomorrow, the first placed finisher takes on the fourth while the second and third face off against each other in the morning. The Gold and Bronze finals then take place in the afternoon.

The semi-finals matches consist of four marked targets and finals matches consist of four different marked targets—for bronze and for gold.

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World Games: semi-finalists have been decided in field archery

Cali - Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The names of the recurve and field finalists have emerged following the second day of qualification rounds at the World Games.
Archers shot the second half of qualifications today in Cali. They shot on 24 marked targets with distances from 5 to 60 metres, each shooting three arrows per target with a maximum of 6 points for each arrow. The top four archers from qualifications per category have qualified for the semi-finals tomorrow.


In the recurve division, the top four archers remained the same as yesterday, though not in the same order. Two men were well above the rest of the field: Brady ELLISON (USA), leader after the unmarked distances, shot the second-best total of the marked distances, just enough to take the first place of the overall ranking with 751 points (average 5.215). World field champion Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA), 3rd yesterday, shot the best total of the marked distances (351) to climb to 2nd place overall, just one point behind the American. He was well ahead of Brit Alan WILLS (main photo), 3rd with 735 points. All three scored above 5 per arrow on average. There was no real competition for the 4th spot: Heribert DORNHOFER (AUT), who held it yesterday, kept that spot with a comfortable margin over the next competitor. He will face ELLISON in the first semi-final, while VALLADONT and WILLS will meet in the other semi-final.


On the women’s side, world field champion Elena RICHTER (GER), the top scorer yesterday, had a weaker showing today but still gathered enough points to remain in first place overall with 703 points. Naomi FOLKARD (GBR) nearly passed her, but had to settle for 2nd with 698. Runner-up from the last World Games Jessica TOMASI (ITA) also improved from yesterday. She posted the highest total of the marked distances (340 points) to climb to 3rd place. Fourth at the last World Games, German Lisa UNRUH (photo) started the day with a seven-point deficit against Yuki HAYASHI (JPN), provisionally 4th. She outscored the Japanese athlete by ten points on the marked distances, edging her out of the top four by just three points. The two Germans RICHTER and UNRUH will meet in the first semi-final; FOLKARD and TOMASI will face off in the second semi-final.


In the barebow division, defending World Games champion Giuseppe SEIMANDI of Italy, who was second yesterday, climbed to the top spot after the marked distances. His total of 690 points over the two days was impressively higher than that of his closest opponent, Frenchman Olivier ROY (photo). The French archer scored only the 4th total of the marked distances, but benefited from his strong score yesterday (355) to remain in 2nd place overall, with 673 points. Yesterday’s runner-up David GARCIA (ESP) dropped to 3rd overall. Finally, Bobby LARSSON (SWE), only 8th yesterday, shot the second best total today (330) to claim the 4th and last qualifying spot for the semi-finals. World champion Sebastián JUANOLA (ESP), shooting only his second major international, didn’t make the cut. SEIMANDI and LARSSON will meet in the first semi-final, while ROY and GARCIA will face off in the other match.


On the women’s side, defending World Games winner Eleonora STROBBE (ITA), the uncontested leader after the unmarked distances, was the best on the marked course as well. With 661 points, she tops the rankings by a huge margin: 48 points. World champion Swede Lina BJORKLUND (photo), who won her title in an upset over STROBBE, climbed from 4th place yesterday to 2nd place overall. France’s Chantal PORTE stands in 3rd with 596 points, ahead of Andrea RAIGEL (AUT), who edged out Victoria WILLIAMS (GBR) to claim the last qualifying spot. STROBBE and RAIGEL will shoot the first semi-final, and the other semi-final will feature BJORKLUND against PORTE.

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DAY ONE OF COMPETITION:(Click on bold lettering for link)

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Day Two of Competition:

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Results of the Semi-Finals:

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NavanJames

Excellent thread.

Regards, NJ.