Outdoor Archery Season, 2004

Summary

Fita average

 Dist	 Hits  Golds    Score   Low  High  S. Dev. Num
  90m   36.00   4.00   276.00   262   289   8.6850   7
  70m   36.00   7.43   305.57   297   315   5.7286   7
  50m   36.00   6.14   302.43   294   316   7.4615   7
  30m   36.00  17.57   336.57   331   339   2.5555   7
  All  144.00  35.14  1220.57  1200  1240  13.2650   7

Fita equivalent average

 Dist	 Hits    Score   Low  High  S. Dev. Num
  All  144.00  1217.80  1177  1240  22.3911   5

Competitions

Sherwood International, 17th-18th July

Fourth. Yet again, this tournament was great fun. The weather was overcast, but warm with a few sprinkles of rain on Saturday, and hot, sunny, and dry (again!) on Sunday. I was very happy with my performance, given that I was only a few weeks into rehabilitation for a second knee operation, and I was shooting with new lighter weight bow limbs and new arrows, which had only arrived the previous week. I had good 60 and 50 yard distances on Sunday, but shot loads of 9s (and nothing below a 9) at 40 yards. I almost beat my best score from the previous year, even with the 40 yard score. The winner this year was a newcomer to the Northwest (but not to archery) Chris Shull.

Burnaby Fita Star, 21st August

This was my first Fita for over a year. I was concerned about the amount of walking aggravating my bad knee, and about the number of arrows shot aggravating my bad shoulder. As it turned out, these weren't what I should have been concerned about, which was the weather. At the end of the 70m distance the rain came on, and it poured for the rest of the competition. I was not properly prepared for the rain, and had not expected it to be as hard or as persistent. It was almost impossible to score on the wet scorecards (replacement Tyvek scorecards helped, but only pencil would mark them), and at times I got a bit cold. I was pleased with my overall performance, though it was a bit shaky at the start of 50m until I accepted that I was wet and the rain wasn't going to stop. The points of technique that I had been trying to focus on worked well, and my shot improved towards the end of the day.

Victoria Fita Star, 28th-29th August

A promising start at 90m led to over-caution and slow shot execution, and then a tired collapse at 50m. Fortunately, the collapse wasn't too bad, and the 30m recovery was reasonable, to put the first day's score solidly in my previous comfort zone. My resolution for the second day was to improve my shot execution, which I partially achieved, for another decent score (and my 100th Fita over 1200).

Burnaby Fita Star, 11th-12th September

I was quite pleased with the first day's result at this tournament. A fortnight of very late nights working, and virtually no practice is not the best preparation, and the rain on the way to the venue was ominously heavy. Fortunately, it did not rain during the competition, but it was windy, especially after the 90m. The second day's weather was better, but my score was worse. After a good start, my arrows started flying anywhere but to the centre, even though I felt like I was shooting good shots. It was a somewhat frustrating day overall.

Victoria Fita Star, 18th-19th September

Another good start at 90m on Saturday was followed by a lacklustre finish to the distance, and an indifferent 70m, before a short metric. Sunday saw the reverse, with a good 70m and somewhat indifferent performances at other distances. The weather was perfect, so the only excuse available was lack of practice, brought about by too much work to finish the week before. I achieved what I wanted to though, keeping all of my scores for the year over 1200.