Olympic Gold for Jin Hyek OH

Jin Hyek OH of South Korea captured the men’s individual gold medal today after defeating Takaharu FURUKAWA of Japan 7-1. Jin Hyek OH adds the gold medal to the bronze the men’s team won earlier in the week.

In the Bronze medal match, Xiaoxiang DAI of China forced a shoot off against Rick van der VEN of the Netherlands after trailing 4-0. Rick van der VEN earlier in the day defeated number one seed and world record holder Im Dong-hyun of South Korea. In the single shot playoff, Xiaoxiang DAI captured the bronze with a perfect 10.

Read More : http://www.ctpost.com/sports/article/Oh-gives-South-Korea-another-archery-gold-3760188.php

South Korea, Mexico and Mexico

Top-seeded Bo Bae KI of South Korea captured her second Gold of these 2012 Olympics in the Women’s Indivdual Recurve today. Mexico’s Aida ROMAN and Mariana AVITIA captured the Silver and Bronze respectively.

The gold medal match was a seesaw battle that saw Bo Bae KI narrowly beat Aida Roman in a shoot-off.

Read More about here : http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/archery/korea/olympics/result/result-ki-grabs-gold-in-archery-final_37821.html

2012 OFSAA Archery Invitational Tournament

On May 16^th to May 17^th 2012 Richmond Green Community Sports Centre again hosted the Ontario High School Archery Invitational Tournament, a sanctioned Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) event.

Once again, I was able to compete on behalf of my high school Kingston Colligate and Vocational Institute alongside my sister Sydney.  We had a great time meeting up with several of our archery friends from all over the province.

This year, well over a hundred girls competed in Olympic Individual division which produced a close competition, a difference of only 34 points separated the top 10 finishers. I was fortunate to capture the Silver Medal between friends Odelia Wong of Parkdale CI and my MICA teammate Lindsay Fulmerton of St. Michael’s School. My sister shot extremely well and improved on last year’s performance to finish 17^th. The new KCVI Archery Club, for which we are founders and I am the coach, has been making progress towards participating in the annual OFSAA tournament. Next year we should be ready to enter a team in the Girls Olympic & Standard Divisions. I hope that we will have enough interest to have a Boys’ Teams as well.

This tournament was a lot of fun and hopefully, the results for the entire tournament will be posted on the Ontario Association of Archers shortly. Any high-school that has or is thinking of starting an Archery Club should really consider participating in this OFSAA sanctioned event. It is an awesome event to gauge your archery club’s development and it is a lot of fun.

Olympic Spot for Canadian Women

Marie-Pier Beaudet of Lévis, Quebec won Gold at the Continental Qualification Tournament for the Americas held on April 22nd in Medellin, Colombia and assures Canadian women a spot at the 2012 Olympics in London.

… Only three Olympic quota spots (one per country) were available in the individual event category at the Continental Qualification Tournament for the Americas. By virtue of Marie-Pier Beaudet’s gold medal performance, Canada was guaranteed one of the three quota spots in the individual category. Mexico and Colombia won the two remaining Olympic quota spots. A total of 64 female archers will qualify for the London Olympics….

Read the entire article on Archery Canada.

Congratulations to Marie-Pier and the entire Canadian Team.

Preparing to take on the World

The 2012 World Archery Indoor Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada are less than a month away, and I am equally excited and nervous. This will be my first experience at the World level and I am trilled about enjoying it with my junior recurve team mates, Virginie Chenier of Quebec and Caitlin Northey of Saskatchewan. I am sure that we will gel as a team however since we all live in various provinces we will develop our team round strategy at the hotel on practice days. Speaking of the Hotel, the South Point Hotel and Casino, where the event will be held, is located in the heart of the premiere southwest Las Vegas valley, just minutes away from the famous Las Vegas Strip. According to their website, some of their many amenities include a 16-screen Century Theatre movie complex, 64-lane bowling center and a handful of restaurants that cater to all appetites and tastes.  Their distinctive hotel features spacious rooms and suites with 42-inch plasma televisions, Point Plush mattresses and Wireless Fidelity throughout. A unique feature to this property is its Equestrian Center, which is the finest horse facility in the country. South Point also has a fabulous 400-seat showroom that features headliner entertainment and dancing to live bands on weekends. Although the hotel offers plenty to do, even for those under age of majority (21 in Nevada), I am not sure I will have a lot of time based on the posted schedule for the Championships. The practice venue will be open for both official arrival days, Friday and Saturday, and I plan to get there early on Saturday. The rest of the week looks like the following…

• Day 1 Official Practice & Team Captain Meeting
• Day 2 Qualification Rounds
• Day 3 Individual Eliminations
• Day 4 Team Eliminations
• Day 5 Individual and Team Finals

Immediately following the championships from February 10^th to 13^th is the World Archery Festival, stage 2 of the Indoor Archery World Cup. However, due to the amount of school I would have to miss, I have decided not to participate, instead I will fly home on February 10^th. I look forward to meeting so many new friends from all over the world, and participating in one of the archery world’s premier events. Until then, my focus will be on eliminating all distractions. First and foremost, finish this semester and exams the week before leaving. So rather than setting expectations to high; my goals are simple. First, focus on shooting and ignoring bells, whistles and the bright lights of Las Vegas. Then, give it my best effort each day, focusing on each shot and ignoring any mistakes. Lastly, learn and enjoy the complete experience. If all I bring back is the knowledge of what it takes to compete that the World level, I will succeed. I have been asked a couple of times now, however it is unknown at this time, if they will be streaming a live feed of the competition however results will be posted on the World Indoor website.