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Picture – Janice standing inside team booth with American flag in the background. |
Friday, October 5 |
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Today started off same as they have since we arrived. Up at 5:00, call Delta class at 6:00, breakfast at 6:45 and catch the 7:30 shuttle to the archery field. The weather was clear and sunny. Once the sun was high enough, it was very warm and comfortable. Today was the first day of competition and there was energy in the air. Lorenzo from Italy and I shared target 57; Gabriele from France shared target 58 with Melissa from Great Britain; and Rubin from Belgium shared 59 with Steve from Great Britain. I started of slow, but ended by practice ends with 5 out of 6 arrows landing in the yellow. I felt really good about that. Then there was a 15 minute break before the scoring ends began. My first end I shot 6 misses. Very upsetting. My second end I shot 5 misses. I decided I was too tense. I was not relaxing my bow hand which was transferring throughout my whole shot. With a small adjustment to my sight positioning, I tried to relax. The rest of the round was better. I managed to score below my average, but not disastrous. The second round went a little bit better, but I still was under my average. This was not how I had hoped to debut, but I was okay with it. After lunch, to my absolute surprise, we checked the standings and saw that I am in third place. I am thrilled. I certainly did not think I had shot well enough for that placement. The most I was hoping for was not to be in last place. I am just on cloud 9!
The standings are as follows:
1st place – Steve from Great Britain 2nd place – Gabriele from France 3rd place – Janice from U.S.A. 4th place - Rubin from Belgium 5th place - Melissa from Great Britain 6th place – Lorenzo from Italy
After the competition, one of the TV stations interviewed me. The reporter asked me how I felt about my shooting today. I told her I wasn’t that happy with it, but this is my first international competition outside the United States and I am very happy to be here having a lot of fun. She asked how I could shoot archery if I can’t see the target and I explained how the technique works. I told her I aim by feel in stead of sight. I explained how important form is and doing the same thing every time. This is the most important thing for any archer, sighted or not. Then she stated that a lot of disabled people don’t think there are activities out there for them to do. She wanted to know what my advice was for people feeling as if there is nothing they can do and just stay at home. This was a tough one since I had just finished a grueling competition and was trying to refocus. I said something about keeping a positive outlook and don’t be afraid to dream. If there is something they would like to try, but are not sure how it is possible, talk to people about it. I told her how I had found out about visually impaired archery through an internet search. I don’t know when or where the interview will be aired, but it was kind of an honor to be asked.
After we put away the equipment, we had lunch under the tent there at the field. Some more interesting Korean food. I had salad and rice and a weird egg thing and some soup. Interesting as always.
After lunch we ran into Ann Webb. She was calling an impromptu meeting with the VI archers to explain how the shoot-offs for the finals will work. Basically, VI archers need time to sight in once they have set up their equipment. She figured out how to give us that time while the shoot-offs are going on. This was very helpful to know ahead of time what to expect. She really is on top of things.
The very nice Korean helper, whose name we found out is Sang Hee Woo (Sarah is her English name), asked if we had been able to get to the bank. We told her we had not. She offered to drive us to the bank and interpret for us. We were so relieved that she had offered. I think we will be going Monday afternoon if our schedule allows it.
We just got back from the team meeting. Randi, our head coach announced to the team that Jeff broke a world record and I broke two world records today. I was shocked. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. The uniform for tomorrow is khaki pants and red U.S.A. shirts.
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