2nd World Cup - Varese 2007

[Adam]

Another awful day. Heavy rain, cold and very, very muddy. Lots of teams had weather-induced problems, including us and the ladies compounds.

We won our first match against Norway, who ran out of time and lost 2 arrows after being repeatedly foot-faulted, among other things. The weather may have had something to do with this, as the 1m waiting line was submerged and all but invisible.

Lost our second (quarter-final) match against Iran - again, the weather played its part. Liam had one shot where his peep had filled with water and, despite frantic efforts to blow it clear, he couldn't shift it. He made a tough call and took the shot blind. Absolutely the right decission, especially give the time on the clock. We still managed X, 10, 10, 10, 9, 5 for the pass.

The ladies had a similar problem and were timed off the line with an arrow to shoot. They went from being 2 up againts the USA to 11 down in the course of that one pass.

As I write, it's just stopped raining, but 2 of the last 3 days have been very wet and the field drainage couldn't cope. We shot one match standing in an inch of muddy water and our box was 2 inches of mud. It was a 70m slide to the targets - deep mud all the way.

Tell me when we're having fun, please.

Adam

[PaulT]

Looks like recurve men have just beaten Australia in the final on a tie break.

Well done guys!!

[Meddler]

Got back from Varese last night.

It was an interesting couple of days. What Adam said about the conditions on Friday is absolutely true. Archers on the line in a couple of inches of water, looked a bit uncomforable to say the least. (He said tongue firmly planted in cheek)

I did my touristy thing, as well as being introduced to some of the FITA staff I'll be working with in August at Dover.

I saw a couple of the team members and staff - most of whom said "What the heck are you doing here?" lol I didn't want to get in the way so kept out of it, and watched most of the time I was there.

The Finals day (Saturday) was interesting, with a fly past from the Italian Air Force, and an Italian precision sky diving team. The schedule was altered so that the Mens' Recurve matches could be shown live on Italian TV - well they did have an interest in the Bronze medal match, and the Gold medal match...

The sky diving team arrived literally in the middle of one of the Womens' Compound matches. They dropped out of the sky in front of the stands, and only just to the side of the finals with Jamie van Natta at full draw. Can't think why, but they stopped the match on safety grounds.

It was an experience to have been there, and I'm sure Adam will have one or two comments.

[Meddler]

I've posted some photos of the finals here :

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/iai...?.dir=/34c1re2

Iain.

[grantwomack]

Glad to see the guys were enjoying themselves despite the weather:

Someone told Larry it was chocolate-filled!

[Adam]

The above pic was taken immediately after Larry shot a X to clinch the gold in a one arrow tie-break. A 9 would have won it, but he shot an X.

After several days of rotten weather, it actually stayed dry for the finals.

I don't know if there's a pic of it anywhere - Dean Alberga may have got one which will make it's way to the Dutch Target site eventually - but when 4 parachutists dropped-in during the finals they arrived during the women's compound final. One of them narrowly missed Jamie Van Natta who was at full draw at the time. Risk aside, it's not quite what an archer needs during a gold medal match and was one of the very questionable organisational issues during the week.

Adam

[timppa]

Originally Posted by Adam

I don't know if there's a pic of it anywhere - Dean Alberga may have got one which will make it's way to the Dutch Target site eventually - but when 4 parachutists dropped-in during the finals they arrived during the women's compound final. One of them narrowly missed Jamie Van Natta who was at full draw at the time.

That happened too fast, I was taking picture of Jamie when that happened. I was too slow and I did not got parachutist in same picture. I hope Dean got that.