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10 takeaways: Qualification at Dublin 2016

29 September 2016

Dublin (IRL)

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Athletes at the 2016 World Archery Field Championships in Dublin, Ireland completed two days of qualification. The first day consisted of a course of 24 unmarked targets, the second 24 marked targets.

Ranked on total score after the two days, only the 16 archers made the cut to the eliminations.

(Two 12-target eliminations, which both start from scratch on scores, then cut to eight, then four for the head-to-head finals.)

Here’s 10 takeaways after 48 targets of eliminations…

1. Top group

Although the scores reset for the first elimination phases, after the top-16 cuts, athletes shoot the elimination courses in groups according to ranking.

Each group – as in the qualification phase – consists of up to four archers. So the top-four ranked competitors in any division shoot the next stage of the event together.

2. Recurve leaders

British Olympian Amy Oliver was 14 points clear at the top of recurve women’s rankings after the two days. She had the best individual scores of the field on days one and two, totalled 695, and was ahead of Jessica Tomasi (681) and Ana Umer (679).

“I’m really happy with my shooting. The green course was short, but I felt like I excuted my distance judging well and shot strong shots. Today was a lot more like a field course, a lot more slopes. Obviously with the wind it was a lot more difficult on the outer targets,” said Oliver.

“The people that normally get in the top, I’m quite good with friends with. It’s nice to be in that top group. It keeps you going.”

The recurve men’s competition was also led on both days by the same person. The USA’s Brady Ellison – bronze medallist at the Olympics in Rio – had 761 for the two days. An incredible 32 points more than Sebastian Rohrberg (729) and Olympic silver medallist Jean-Charles Valladont (726).

He had mentioned prior to competition that his goal was to be 20+ points ahead. Mission accomplished.

3. Cuts

To make the top 16 in each division, athletes needed:

Compound men – 788 points
Compound women – 747 points
Recurve men – 676 points
Recurve women – 623 points
Barebow men – 623 points
Barebow women – 548 points

4. Swedish expectation

“Since I’m the champion from 2012 and ’14, I have a lot of pressure on me,” said Lina Bjorklund, from the dominant barebow nation of Sweden.

“We know that we are good barebow shooters, so of course we have some pressure – but there are many good archers this year. The cut from yesterday, 292, for barebow women – I’ve never seen these high scores before, so many ladies that shot more than 300.”

Lina, the two-time defending barebow women’s winner at the world field, had 639 points for her 48 targets. She was 23 points up on Italian archer Eleonora Strobbe (616), who won the event in 2010. Three archers sat on 613.

5. Top juniors

The first-ranked junior athletes over the six categories:

Compound junior men: NICO WIENER (796 pts)
Compound junior women: ERICA BENZINI (735 pts)
Recurve junior men: PATRICK HUSTON (719 pts)
Recurve junior women: BRYONY PITMAN (664 pts)
Barebow junior men: ALESSIO NOCETI (668 pts)
Barebow junior women: MALIN MEDBO (622 pts)

6. USA 1-2-3

Ten-time competitor and two-time champion at the World Archery Field Championships Dave Cousins rose to the top of a competitive compound men’s leaderboard. He was trailed by USA teammates Jesse Broadwater (who won the last two editions of the event) and Steve Anderson.

The trio had 829, 826 and 824 points, respectively.

“The course didn’t present any overwhelming challenges as compared to yesterday. It was pretty straight-forward field archery stuff,” said Cousins. “The biggest thing obviously was the weather.”

Out of the cover of the wooded portions of the courses, the wind blustered intensely all day.

“Very happy to be in the pines and the thick brush today,” he added. The compound course offered some protection from the weather.

Dave said he had the drive of wanting to shoot the highest score of the States trio so he could take the compound place in the team event at the championships: “We can all shoot big scores and at the end of the day, I wanted to have that spot.”

Sander Dolderman, who ranked second over the unmarked portion of the round, shot only the 14th-best score on the marked. “It was enough,” he said. Enough for fourth, a spot in the top group and well within the 16-athlete cut.

7. Top or bottom

“I didn’t have any real expectations. I’ve not been training very conscientiously. I thought I’d either come first or last,” said Sydney 2000 Olympic Champion Simon Fairweather, who sneaked into the eliminations with a 16th-placing over qualification.

The last World Archery Field Championships he had competed in was 24 years ago, where he finished around 10th. Two years prior to that, Fairweather had come away with silver.

“I tried to shoot my shots without getting too obsessed that it was for score,” he added, saying the standard of the field had increased a lot.

8. 2 points…

…separated the top three barebow men, in the most contested of the category leads.

John Demmer III, from the USA, bagged first with 701. Italian archer Giuseppe Seimandi and Erik Jonsson, of Sweden, both finished with 699 points, two behind Demmer. Jonsson had led after the unmarked portion of the round but had seven less than his States opponent over the marked.

9. Van Natta’s unmarked

Although she was only fifth over the second, marked day in the compound women’s competition, Jamie van Natta did enough on day one to build a lead to head the leaderboard over the full round with 780 points.

Ivana Buden, ranked second after day one, also dropped to third for the whole round with a 14th-best score on the marked course, while Mexico’s Linda Ochoa-Anderson slipped in between the pair for second on 778.