I just found this blog, titled “My Archery Blog”. I like that. Straight and to the point. It looks like a young blog and I hope she sticks with it. Vanessa Lee is an archer from our neighbors up north, Canada. She talks about the “war” it is just to make it onto the Korean archery team. Once that’s accomplished, the pressure of the Olympics isn’t so much.

When I spoke to my coach in Korea over the phone last week, she talked about the national team trials for the 2009 World Championships and Asian Championships. Unlike the one-time deal type of trials (or two-time deal) here in Canada, there are several stages involved in Korean team trials. My coach said it’s so intense, everyone is at each other’s throats and it’s like war. At the first stage, there were over 200 archers who shot the ranking round and went into eliminations. After eliminations, only the top 32 went on to the second stage. My friend, Hye-Jin, (who I talked about in my last post) made it to the top 32! The second stage was held this past week and again, it consisted of a ranking round and eliminations. This time, only the top 13 (per gender) along with the 3 men and 3 women who went to the Olympics advance to the next stage.