Indoor Archery World Cup Final – Vegas Shoot Starts Today

 

This year’s Vegas Shoot is the biggest ever – with around 2,200 registered competitors. Attracted by a generous prize fund, the championship division features a large contingent of professional athletes each year – while the flight categories, for amateur archers, have seen a drastic increase in popularity.

Live scores are available throughout the tournament, in which archers shoot 30 arrows at a triangular triple-spot face each of the three days of the tournament. Three of these 300 rounds (an NFAA – the organisers – round in the USA) decide the final rankings at The Vegas Shoot.

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My Fifteen Minutes

Before leaving for the World Indoor Archery Championships in Las Vegas, NV, I was interviewed by CKWS Kingston. On Tuesday, the interview was aired. You can watch the interview here on the CKWS TV website.

Select Tuesday and click on the local sports. My interview starts about halfway through and you will need Adobe Flash Player to view it.

Hitting the Airwaves

Yesterday, I was interviewed by Alan Neal of CBC Radio One about representing Canada at the World Archery Indoor Championships in Las Vegas, NV. Listen to the podcast here.

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.

Vegas Baby

The 2012 World Indoor Championships are being held from February 5-9^th in Las Vegas Nevada and I am going as a member of Team Canada. This will mark my first World Archery competition and I am very excited to represent Canada and Cartel Doosung at this level. This is the first time this prestigious event has been held in North America and it is being hosted by USA Archery and the National Field Archery Association.

Each country participating in the World Championships is allotted three archers in each of the categories including junior and senior, male and female in both recurve and compound to represent their country.

Each country has its own selection process, and in Canada qualification is based on your 2011 indoor scores, starting with the National Indoor Championships score and adding your top two other nationally recognized scores which are added together to rank the archers in each category.  I was very fortunate to qualify with the top ranking in the women’s junior recurve division.

As a Christmas gift and to commemorate the achievement, my sponsor Cartel Doosung sent me a beautiful new watch with the World Archery emblem.  Although this will be my first competition at the world level, my goal is very simple; shoot the target and enjoy the experience.