Outdoor Archery Season, 2002

Summary

Fita average

 Dist	 Hits  Golds    Score   Low  High  S. Dev. Num
  90m   35.93   3.50   270.86   255   291  11.0121  14
  70m   36.00   6.86   301.64   284   323  10.1813  14
  50m   36.00   7.77   306.38   288   318   8.1951  13
  30m   36.00  17.25   337.58   324   346   6.9337  12
  All  143.92  36.00  1219.08  1190  1262  22.9436  12

York averages

 Dist	 Hits  Golds    Score   Low  High  S. Dev. Num
 100y   71.50  10.00   504.50   488   521  16.5000   2
  80y   48.00  14.00   355.00   338   372  17.0000   2
  60y   24.00  13.50   194.00   192   196   2.0000   2
  All  143.50  37.50  1053.50  1022  1085  31.5000   2

Fita equivalent average

 Dist	 Hits    Score   Low  High  S. Dev. Num
  All  143.88  1215.38  1149  1262  27.0275  16

Competitions

Burnaby Fita Star, 18th-19th May

This was the Cecil Meehan Memorial shoot. Cecil was a keen archer, well known in British Columbia and Canada. His wife, Lillian, sponsored prizes for junior archers attending the competition as an alternative to the scholarship she had offered the previous two years.

I was quite pleased with the first day, as this was the first Fita I had shot since injuring my shoulder during the winter, and it was the first time I had shot more than eight dozen arrows at once this year. My shoulders stood up to the extra (ab)use quite well, and the form points I had been developing during the previous month of practice showed great promise. The 70m scores on both days were poor, the 50m on the first day and the 90m on the second day were quite good. The second day's overall score was a bit disappointing, but I was quite tired, and it looks like I will make a good recovery.

The weather was slightly cloudy, with very light winds, but a little bit cooler than perfect. Wayne Fleet took full advantage of the conditions, breaking the Canadian Fita record for compounds twice with good scores (1376 and 1382), and taking the 90m record as well.

Maple Ridge Fita Star, 9th June

What a depressing day. The moment I started practice, I knew something was not right. Neither the modified grip shape I had been working on, nor the original grip felt right, and I went into the first end of scoring with no confidence. Surprisingly, I shot the first end very well, staying in the moment with each shot. After that, it just went downhill rapidly, and all of the work I had been doing on my form disintegrated. There was a tricky wind from the left, but the weather was hot and sunny, so I have no good excuses for what happened.

California Cup, 15th-16th June

From bad to worse. Having altered the grip shape again to make it feel right, and fixed a problem with the sight drifting, I had noticed a problem with my head position. This tournament came at an unfortunate time, as I had not had time to fully correct the head position. My groups were inconsistent from the start, and I spent two beautiful days shooting very badly. I flew myself and Hugh MacDonald down from Seattle for the tournament, so at least I got some good flying time out of the trip.

Burnaby Fita Star, 22nd-23rd June

The first day of this shoot felt good, but only scored well in the short distances (50 and 30 metres). I had identified, with the help of Mike Wichser at the WCW club in Seattle, some problems in my execution in the days before the tournament, but did not get it quite right throughout the day. Sunday was terrible; poor sleep the night before and mental tiredness led me to get frustrated and then bored with poor shooting, and I gave up at the start of the 50m.

Victoria Fita Star, 6th-7th July

More work on the shot execution yielded my best score for 5 years on Saturday. Sunday was slightly disappointing, I couldn't keep to focus and concentration at a high enough level to repeat Saturday's success. The only bad thing about the weekend was the traffic on the way up; 9 hours to travel less than 150 miles is ludicrous! The weather was as good as I have ever shot in. Angela Pretty took best advantage of the conditions, breaking her own Canadian recurve record with 1324.

Sherwood International, 20th-21st July

Third. As in previous years, this tournament was great fun. The weather was hot, sunny, and dry (again!), and once again Brian Funston lead from start to finish. I had good 60 and 40 yard distances on both days, but was let down by poor 50 yard scores on both days. My overall total was improved from the previous year, though both scores were below the previous year's personal best.

Scottish Championships, 3rd-4th August

Fourth open, Second native. Heavy rain in the previous days had left the field very wet, and it turned into a mud-bath over the two days of this tournament. I was disappointed not to do better; my shot was not quite right throughout most of the weekend. The shorter distances were better than the long distances, and I nearly shot a good 50m score on Sunday. Unfortunately, a long-standing mental block took over in the last six shots and I spoiled the score. I had my first miss in two years at 90m on the first day, when I shot an arrow on the wrong target.

British Championships, 10th-11th August

This was my first York round for seven years. During the week before this tournament, I had a bad cold and was feeling down. I shot very poorly in the home nations tournament on the first day, where I was in the Scottish team. The second day was better, but not up to the standard I was expecting, even though I beat one of my poorest personal bests by a couple of points. The weather was cloudy with a few spots of drizzle, and a changeable quartering tailwind; better than the forecast, which was for thunderstorms and heavy rain. Maybe I'll wait another seven years before shooting another York.

Victoria Fita Star, 7th-8th September

Once again I combined two of my hobbies this weekend, flying a light aeroplane up to this tournament, and also taking two of the University of Washington students with me. The weather was excellent on the first day, but my scores were not. I was a bit dehydrated after forgettiing to put a water bottle in my equipment. The morning was undistinguished, followed by a good 50m and a very poor 30m. The evening was amusing, after dinner I ended up in a nightclub with Russell and Meredith until the early morning. This may explain the slow start to the next day, but the 70m and 50m scores pulled this up to one of the best scores of the year, even though the weather was far less pleasant than the previous day.

Maple Ridge Fita Star, 14th-15th September

The first day of this tournament saw a slow start followed by steadily improving distances, through to a new club record at 30m (beating my old record by one point). On Sunday, I shot dreadfully until the end of the 50m, when I retired and tried to help Russell in his last attempt of the year to get his 1000 Fita Star (he did it with 1001). I didn't want to finish the season on too bad a note, because I knew I'd be going for surgery on my drawing shoulder soon, and would not be able to shoot for a while.