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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2006
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The 122nd Archery
National Target Championships, presented by the Colorado
Springs Sports Corp., will be held August 1-5 for the
second year in a row at Memorial Park in Colorado
Springs, Colo., the home of USA Archery's National
Office and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).
The 2006 Jr. World Team Trials will also be held in
conjunction with the National Championships, with the
final day of competition taking place on Sunday, August
6.
The 2006 National Target Championships, a
world-ranking event, will feature over 420 archers from
the U.S. and around the world including Olympians,
Paralympians, World Champions, United States Archery
Team (USAT) members, world record holders, top junior
archers and the first ever blind archer to compete at a
National Target Championships. In addition to the U.S.,
there will be eight other countries represented at the
event. Athletes from Bolivia, Canada, Chinese Taipei,
Denmark, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Puerto Rico
and South Africa will be in Colorado Springs for five
days of intense archery competition, a chance to compete
for a national title and set new national and world
records.
Four members from each of the 2004
Olympic Archery Team and 2004 Paralympic Archery Team
will be in Colorado Springs competing for national
titles. Fifty year old four-time Olympian Butch Johnson
(Woodstock, Conn.), two-time Olympian Vic Wunderle
(Mason City, Ill.), fifty-two year old three-time
Olympian Janet Dykman (El Monte, Calif.) and 2004
Olympian Jennifer Nichols (Cheyenne, Wyo.) will all be
in attendance.
The 2004 Paralympians will
include bronze medalists Jeff Fabry (Tulare, Calif.) and
Kevin Stone (Adrian, Mich.) along with Lindsey
Carmichael (Lago Vista, Texas) and Chuck Lear (Lee’s
Summit, Mo.).
Janice Walth (Lodi, Calif.) will
make her first appearance at the Nationals shooting in
the visually impaired compound bow category.
Other archery Olympians competing at the
Nationals this year will be four-time Olympian and 1984
silver medalist Rick McKinney (Sacramento, Calif.), 1972
Olympian Ed Eliason (Stansbury Park, Utah), 1984
Olympian Glenn Meyers (Fremont, Mich.), 2000 Olympian
Karen Scavotto (Enfield, Conn.), three-time Olympian for
the Republic of Georgia Khatuna Lorig (Stanhope, N.J.)
and 2004 Canadian Olympian Jonathan Ohayon (Redlands,
Calif.).
There will be many Colorado area
archers in attendance including 2006 Collegiate
All-American Nathan McCullough (University of Colorado,
Colorado Springs/Colorado Springs, Colo.), 2006 U.S.
Intercollegiate Archery Champion Brian Christensen
(Colorado State University/Littleton, Colo.) and current
Chula Vista, Calif. Olympic Training Center Resident
Athlete and 2006 United States Archery Team (USAT)
member Joy Fahrenkrog (Castle Rock, Colo.). Aya LaBrie
(Aurora, Colo.), a 2003 World Championship team gold
medalist will also be competing at the Nationals,
shooting in both the recurve and compound bow divisions.
In the compound bow division, number one ranked
Dave Cousins (Standish, Maine) will be vying for his
eighth consecutive National Target Championship title,
along with 2006 World University Archery Championship
double gold medalist Braden Gellenthien (Hudson, Mass.),
who took second at Nationals last year and is looking to
win his first National title in the senior division.
Jamie Van Natta (Toledo, Ohio) is looking to take her
third consecutive National title for the compound women.
USA Archery is honored to have new national head
coach Kisik Lee, a six-time Olympic Coach, in attendance
at the National Target Championships for the first time
this year. Former Korean and Australian National Coach,
Lee was hired in January of 2006 in order take the U.S.
to a higher level in the sport of archery and to be able
to contend with the top archery countries in the world,
including Coach Lee’s native Korea. USA Archery is
anticipating Coach Lee will help the U.S. Team bring
home gold in 2008.
Coach Lee’s Korean and
Australian archers have won a combined 23 medals in
World Championships during the past 15 years. He has
never taken a team to an Olympic Games and not returned
with a medal. His athletes have won nine of the 22
Olympic gold medals awarded in archery in the past 20
years.
National Championship competition,
consisting of men’s and women’s recurve, compound,
barebow and crossbow along with youth recurve and
compound will run from approximately 8:30 a.m. – 5:00
p.m. Tuesday – Friday, August 1-4.
The
championships will consist of two full FITA rounds to
determine the U.S. National Champions, followed by the
U.S. Open head-to-head elimination round on Saturday,
August 5. Archers will shoot distances that range from
30 to 90 meters, the equivalent of one football field.
The 2006 Jr. World Team Trials will conclude on
Sunday, August 6 with the top 64 junior and cadet
finishers from the Nationals Championships competing in
round robin match play. The Jr. World Trials will decide
the team for the 2006 Junior World Championships in
Mexico this October.
Spectators are welcome to
attend and there is no admission
fee.
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