June roundup

2 July, 2017

Welcome to the June roundup. This slo-mo video of Chang Hyejin taking a shot, produced by Gwenaël Massot for World Archery at the Salt Lake World Cup, is possibly my favourite thing of the month. Everyone seems to agree – it’s been shared over a thousand times and has over 100,000 views.

Apparently the collective slo-mo videos have hit nearly half a million views, which means they must be going outside the archery community into the wider world. Good news. Of course, I’m biased, but people may not realise quite how much work Chris Wells and the wider WA team have put into the social media; in terms of Olympic sports, it’s literally world-leading.


So Antalya happened. And it was good. And pleasantly hot. I wrote up a longer piece for Dutch Target about it with Dean’s best shots here, and wrote something else here too. (Watch out for some photos going into Bow International next issue too).
Tom Hall talked about it. The Japanese team were pretty funny.

The big news that week was that archery is getting an extra podium place at the Tokyo Olympics, as mixed teams are added across the board. Naturally, the Koreans intend to win that, too. You can read what some idiot had to say about it here.


(On the subject of Bow International, you should buy this month’s issue featuring a many-handed interview with Oh Jin Hyek which is well worth a read).

Then it was Salt Lake City, which turned out to be even hotter than Antalya. I really enjoyed the recurve finals, there was some quality matchplay. The Korean men started sporting some decidedly bouffant hairdos. Disappointingly empty stands though. Hope they can improve that for next year.

Really good to see Marcus D’Almeida back at the business end of things too. Some of the WC Final places have been decided, too.


There was a slightly daft but entertaining sports swap on the Olympic Channel featuring Lisa Unruh. It was Choi Misun’s birthday. Whee.  Plus Kang Chae Young told Dutch Target about things being tough at the top.

Willow Smith (yes, her) has taken up archery. Cue media frothing. Some guy in Scotland is teaching archery in a swimming pool. Uh-huh.  Royal archery fun happened in Bhutan. Yay!

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One slightly less savoury story is brewing and has been for a while: there are problems at Archery GB with a sexual assault case which has finally hit the national press. There’s even more to it than what is being currently reported above, if you believe some very vocal para-archers making a noise at the moment. I’m keeping a very close eye on this – believe me – and will bring you more as I get it.

I’ve been sitting on this for a few days, but have decided it’s better you read the BBC version linked above now rather than what some of the scummier British press may end up doing with it if it really breaks – and the investigation is apparently growing. It’s a little tricky, because I know who the coach involved is – as do many, many other people in British and international archery. (I believe I know who the archer is, too).

Archery GB aren’t the only governing body with problems like this; another major archery NGB is quietly dealing with similar issues at the moment. It’s a reminder that archery exists within a wider pantheon of sports, which have endemic problems. You have to hope everything is going to come out on the other side in better shape.

Missed May’s roundup? It’s here

If you read only one article, make it this one about recurve mistakes.

After the archery – Antalya teardown panorama.

 

 

 

 

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