Posted in Olympic News on August 15th, 2008 | No Comments »

U.S. archer Victor Wunderle defeated reigning world champion Im Dong-hyun of South Korea 113-111 to advance to the quarterfinals, then lost to [top-seeded Juan Rene Serrano of Mexico] 113-106.

Ukraine’s Viktor Ruban took advantage of a mistake by South Korean Park Kyung-mo to win the Olympic gold medal in men’s individual archery Friday.

Ruban had a 103-95 edge after his 11th arrow when Park scored just 8 on his 11th to make it an even score. Ruban responded with a 10 to tie, forcing Park to get a perfect score on his final shot.

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Posted in Olympic News on August 14th, 2008 | No Comments »

Wunderle Sets Sights on Friday’s Final Day of Individual Competition

He will face Dong-Hyun Im of Korea in the round of eight at 11:48 a.m. on Friday.

The 41st seed, Wunderle beat #24 seed Eduardo Velez of Mexico 106-102 in the first round and then upset #9 seed Ilario Di Buo’ of Italy in a one arrow shootout on Wednesday. The score in the second match was tied at 108 after 12 arrows, but after Di Buo’ hit an eight on his first extra shot, Wunderle closed the match with a 10.

“I think I’ll need to do a little bit better in the next round to continue advancing,” Wunderle said after his opening two rounds on Wednesday. “This sport comes down to who’s shooting hot on given day, and I know if I have a good day, I’m capable of winning. I just have to try to make Friday a good day.”

We’re cheering for you Vic!

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Posted in Olympic News on August 14th, 2008 | No Comments »

Lorig’s Olympics End in Individual Quarterfinals

The archers braved a cold rain throughout the match. After falling behind by three points through the first three arrows, Lorig never seem to get in a rhythm. She lost three more points over the next three shots before shooting even with Yun over the final three of the match.

“The rain affected me a little bit, but we train a lot in the rain. We even train in the cold rain. But it’s disrupting a little bit,” Lorig said. “You figure if the first arrow doesn’t go in the gold, you’re unsure if you should touch the sights or not. I actually shot really well, with the way I feel. It just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”

Khatuna, you’ve made us all proud of you. Well done. We’ll see you back on Team USA in 2012.

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Posted in Olympic News on August 14th, 2008 | No Comments »

The Register Guard: Real conflict encroaches on archery field

You want pressure? When Esebua lost a tie-breaker on an Olympic archery field, her country was losing a war. Russian planes were bombing Georgian cities, and Russian troops were controlling Georgian territory, and is it any wonder Esebua said she had trouble concentrating on the target?

“One good round, two bad,” she said, clearly unhappy with her performance.

But I’m thinking she did fine, that she represented her country very well, considering she couldn’t be sure she still had one.

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Posted in Olympic News on August 13th, 2008 | No Comments »

Lee sets Olympic archery mark; American wins

American Vic Wunderle also moved on to the third round, beating Italy’s Ilario Di Buo’ in a shoot-off after a 108-108 tie. Wunderle will face South Korea’s Im Dong-hyun, one of the tournament favorites.

Im beat American Butch Johnson in the second round, 115-106. American Brady Ellison faced two straight Canadians. He beat John David Burnes 111-89, then lost in the second round to Jay Lyon 113-107.

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Posted in Olympic News on July 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

IOC lifts Iraq’s Olympic suspension

A compromise was worked out after mediators from Germany and China became involved in talks, and Iraq pledged to hold free elections for its national Olympic committee under international observation.

Iraq is expected to send two athletes to Beijing to compete in track and field events. The decision came too late for five other hopefuls in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. The deadline to submit names for those sports expired last week.

How disheartening is this? A resolution is reached, but too late for the majority of the athletes. The archer may fare better than the other olympic hopefuls as the skill of an archer is not so tied to age as it is for judo, rowing and weightlifting. Sad all around.

I still don’t understand the nature of the ban. I’m not sure I can identify who the players are, who the good guys and who the bad guys are. Perhaps they’re all bad. Take a look at this sentence however:

The IOC had insisted the old committee be reinstated even though four members were kidnapped two years ago. Their fates remain unknown.

“Their fates remain unknown.” ?!?!?!?! This makes the IOC look like inconsiderate, bumbling jerks!

Who knows. I need someone to explain this whole thing to me.

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Posted in Olympic News on July 27th, 2008 | No Comments »

I can’t say that I understand any of this. Just this past week, the IOC barred the Iraqi Olympic team from competing, including the first ever archer from the country, Ali Adnan.

There’s something about the Iraqi government replacing the Olympic Committee because there weren’t elections held for the positions so the government replaced them with their own self appointed committee. Then the IOC stepped in and barred the entire contingent from competing in the Olympics just a couple of weeks away. The IOC wants the old committee reinstated and is open to talks. Deadlines are passing … and it’s hard to tell which is what.

I’m suspect of both groups. The Olympics isn’t necessarily the bastion of the moral high ground and has been susceptible of corruption. Iraq is, well … a government in turmoil. Like I said, I don’t know which way is up in this drama.

One thing is for sure, the athletes are paying the price. I hope there is a resolution, and before August 8th would be nice.

It’s politics as 5 Iraqis are out of Olympics

As a side note, there are some Wikipedia pages about the Iraq Olympic team that are now missing or deleted. What’s that about?!? Pages about the team, and about the individual athletes. Strange. I’ll let you know if I’m contacted about this posting.

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Posted in Archery Stories, Olympic News on July 20th, 2008 | No Comments »

Scotland on Sunday: Another string to his bow

He was amazed at how quickly he got back into the swing of things. Despite having equipment almost as ancient as that he used in his Crieff days, when his publican dad hooked him up with his pal Les Bryce who drank in the Terrys’ Oakbank Inn pub and owned a little archery shop in the town, Terry was surprisingly competitive.

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Posted in Olympic News on July 17th, 2008 | No Comments »

The Sports Network: 2008 Summer Olympic Games Preview – Archery

The sports network gives a great overview of what is the outlook for the US Archery team. The Koreans will definitely be tough. Will the US team have enough to overthrow them?

The U.S. Archery Team will look for success at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with the recent hiring of world renowned archery coach Kisik Lee. Coach Lee will try to help the U.S. men bring home a medal in 2008 after falling just short (fourth) at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

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Posted in Olympic News on July 15th, 2008 | No Comments »

EuroSport gives a great synopsis for the upcoming Olympic Games in regards to archery.

Beijing 2008 – Quick Guide: Archery

The rules of archery

Archers shoot standing, placed 70 meters away from the target. The diameter of the target is 1.22m. It is composed of 10 concentric rings, each one measuring 12.2cm.

The centre ring, or bullseye, counts for 10 points, the outer ring is worth one, and the rings in between increase in value by one point as you get nearest to the centre.

The winner of a match is the athlete who reaches the highest tally out of all of his arrows.

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