European Bowhunter champs

[steve Morley]

Well less than a week to go before this tourney starts, fantastic courses (shot them last year) competition is in Otapaa set in Estonia's Olympic Ski training venue, some great up/down shots will make it a tough and interesting competition.

Some really strong Longbow shooters (AFB) from Germany,Austria, Switzerland and Italy, they shoot almost exclusivly IFAA 3D and it's very competitive between these countries, hope my form is good enough to give these guys a run for their money.

You can keep track of the weeks shooting with the link below and I'll update you on the highlights when I get back home.

Results

[HOTHOUSEDOG]

Best of luck!!!

[englishwarbow]

Go for it Steve! It sounds like one hell of a location!

[steve Morley]

Thanks Englishwarbow I'll do my best, my shooting is pretty strong at the moment so I hope for a respectable result.

I loved the place so much I moved here from the UK in May. Fantastic place and people who have a real passion for Archery, the language is bit of a nightmare to lean as it's not really related to any other Europen language it makes it quite unique and complex. Think Finnish is the closest but as most Estonians speak English so it's not too much of a problem to communicate but it helps me to be more social when with groups of Estonians and theyre all speaking Eesti.

'Ma ei räägi palju eesti keelt' - 'I don't speak much Estonian' is my most used phrase when meeting people lol

[steve Morley]

Just got home from the European Bowhunter champs

I ended up 3rd and my friend and bowyer from Blackbrook Bows took first place. I was happy with a 3rd place result and was very pleased that Andy Soars won the Longbow division (he had people queuing showing great interest in his Bows). on the 3rd day the one arrow round the live scoring really screwed my focus because I had to use a borrowed mobile phone after I blanked 4 of the first 5 targets and I just said sorry I cant do this and the group was really great and agreed to scrap the live scoring and let me focus on my shooting I was ok after that and ended up with the 3rd highest score of the day but it cost me valuable points.

Last day I was shooting with Andy, my Estonian friend Jannus and the Austrian who was in the lead, it was a great group to be in and I was in 4th place and needed something of a miracle to win, decided to just go for it 100% and started off first 14 targets all one arrow except for one 2nd arrow shot(Longbows shoot these 3D's out to 60 yards), think I destroyed the Austrians confidence and my friend Andy was a little shaky for the first 8-9 targets but he hung on and started to settle and came back strong on the second half. Trying to make up points on the 3 arrow round is hard to do and end of the day I just couldn't make up the points. after my upset the day before we had a girl with us doing the live scoring so we could focus on the shooting, she said afterwards that she had never seen such great shooting from four Longbows, quite a few targets we were all scored pro kills and after 4 days shooting only 9 points separated us, I scored 512 and Andys shot the second highest score of the day 504 and many of the targets were set close to max allowed distance (Max score is 560) I thought considering the level we were shooting at the atmosphere was pretty relaxed and friendly.

I was pleased my good friend Andy Soars won, he's worked hard to shoot so well, we have always been tight in UK competitions and I've been lucky to grab a couple more points to beat him even when I’ve been behind, so I can imagine the pressure he was under and determination he needed to pull off this great win.

The Austrians, Germans and Italians have dominated these Bowhunters competitions for many years and was great to open their eyes and show them a couple of brits and an Estonian can give them a run for their money and hope we can do the same at the world Bowhunters in South Dakota next year

Fantastic week :-)

link to web-page with results below.

Results