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Para Worlds Britain’s W1 clean sweep
Gellenthien’s 2017 predictions and how many of them came true
Beyond beginners
d l r o W pionships Your postcourse options for improvement
m a h C econd
s s e k a t Im n o s r a e y 0 1 e l t i t s e o d u a e Pein e l b u o d e th
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contents
Contents 6 NEWS The latest news from around the archery world
8 Beijing Battle The World Para-Archery Championships head to China for this year’s event
12 Mexico Medals The World Championships, hosted in Mexico City, welcome returning champions and new faces
16 Mastering the Elements Alistair Whittingham reports from the last stage of the 2017 Pro-Archery Series
18 2017 In Review John Stanley takes a look back at 2017, the highs, the lows, and the standout moments
22 Getting to the Point
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Duncan Busby takes a look at how point weight can impact your tuning
26 Masters of the World Michaela Lake and Jason Meehan were multiple medallists at the World Masters this year – they tell us how they did it
32 Competition Lessons Lucy O’Sullivan reveals what you can learn from competing at every level from local to international
34 Struggles on the World Stage Jim Kent’s first competitive outing as a representative of Team GB was memorable for all the wrong reasons
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38 Usk Undertaking Alex Tyler reports from the NFAS Championships
40 Stance and Stability Crystal Gauvin analyses the foundation of every shot – your stance
44 Braden Gellenthien’s 2017 We caught up with Braden at the beginning of the year to find out what his hopes were – and at the end of it to see how they turned out!
49 Stabilisers and Setup Patrick Huston examines the different stabiliser options out there, and the relative features and qualities of each
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53 The next level Finished your beginners course and wondering what’s next? Andrew Smith explains how to keep progressing
57 Ask The Experts Our experts tackle a range of form and equipment queries
60 Competition Win a Midas bow bag!
4 BOW International
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Letter, idea or question? Got something to say? A question for our experts, an article, or article idea? Drop us a line and let us know. Either email us at nicola.turner@futurenet.com, send us a letter at the Future Publishing address below – or talk to us on Twitter or Facebook
The team Editor Nicola Turner Art Editor Matt Smith Advertising sales Ben Page Ben.Page@futurenet.com 01225 687469 Correspondence Future Publishing, Units 1 & 2, Sugarbrook Court, Aston Road Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 3EX Production Head of production UK & US Mark Constance Production controller Nola Cokely
Goodbye 2017 I
t seems like just a few weeks ago I was writing a welcome to 2017, and wondering what it had in store – but in fact, that was almost 12 months ago and at the time of writing we are just a few short days away from 2018. 2017 was a great year for archery; granted, it was always going to look like a bit of a quiet one after an Olympic and Paralympic year, but we’ve seen some notable performances and I for one have really enjoyed being a spectator to the archery world stage (perhaps the less said about my actual shooting this year, the better). On the Bow International front, we’ve run our first ever Technique Special this year, and after telling us you wanted to hear more from top archers about their tips and training we’ve included more in-depth interviews than before as well. We’re also pleased to have welcomed new contributors to the team, and are also in the middle of re-vamping and updating our website (stay tuned for more developments on that next year). I hope you’ve found something helpful in our 2017 issues, wherever you happen to be on
your archery journey – if there’s anything you’d like to have seen us cover that you haven’t yet, why not drop us a line and make a suggestion for our 2018 issues? You can reach us by post, email, or on our social medial channels, so feel free to get in touch. The indoor season is now in full swing, and regardless of whether you love or loathe indoor archery, I can’t deny it’s nice to be shooting under cover when there’s snow on the ground outside. I love it anyway, and always appreciate the change in focus that it brings. From tuning to technique, look out for articles on ways to make the most of the winter months and, even if you can’t wait to be outdoors again, you’ll hit the ground running in the new year. Whether you asked Santa for a new bow, some archery accessories, or simply some time to get out and enjoy the sport we love, I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas and have plenty to look forward to for the new year.
Management Managing Director Aaron Asadi Editorial Director Paul Newman Art & Design Director Ross Andrews Head of Art & Design Rodney Dive or Greg Whittaker Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham Licensing International licensing director Matt Ellis Matt.Ellis@futurenet.com +44 (0)1225 442244 Distributed by Marketforce (UK), 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU Contributors Duncan Busby, James Carr, Crystal Gauvin, Patrick Huston, Jim Kent, Lucy O’Sullivan, Andrew Smith, John Stanley, Adrian Tippins, Alex Tyler, Alistair Whittingham
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Good shooting! Nicola
BOW International 5
news
bow NEWS
If you have a news story, email nicola.turner@futurenet.com or send your post to Future Publishing, Units 1 & 2, Sugarbrook Court, Aston Road, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 3EX
‘Arrows for Hope’ Finals by numbers awarded World Archery presented a cheque for $57,000 (USD) to Mexico City Director of Sport Horacio de la Vega at the end of the World Championships, held in Mexico City in October. The ‘Arrows for Hope’ donation was made up of contributions from World Archery, Hyundai, Hoyt, Easton, Longines, Global Sports Development, FILA, FFTA, Win&Win, Danage, DSB, FITArco and Krueger, to assist in the rebuilding efforts in the affected areas. The event title sponsor Hyundai also made a significant donation to the Mexican Red Cross. World Archery President Prof Dr Ugur Erdener commented, “The organisation, atmosphere and athletic performances of these World Championships combined to create an incredible spectacle of sport. The iconic Zocalo proved itself a world-class venue for elite archery again, and our ever-growing presence on television and new media made this World Archery Championships the most followed to date. “It is our hope that the inspiration gained by those who attended and our small donation towards the rebuilding of a city that welcomed us so openly, so soon after dealing with disaster, marks these World Championships as an example of the positive impact that international sport can have.” Horacio De La Vega, President of the Organising Committee added, “During these championships the people of Mexico City proved, once again, their passion for archery. “We are proud to have delivered another successful international archery event and look forward to the positive legacy this will leave for the sport both in Mexico and abroad.”
6 BOW International
The recent World Archery Championships in Mexico City had the widest reach of any event so far. Over 10,000 people watched the finals from the bleachers. Over 50,000 people visited the Hyundai Archery Fan Park and finals venue, with 4,000 of those making use of the archery experience. There were three national broadcasters carrying over 20 hours of footage. International channels in 14 territories showed the live final, and highlights and news brought the total number of channels featuring it to almost 200. Live footage was streamed through the Olympic Channel, Facebook and YouTube. World Archery’s social media platforms reached over 6.4 million individuals – an 85 per cent growth in followers compared to the 2015 event. At the end of the event, World Archery had nearly 250k likes on its Facebook page, over 46k fans on Twitter, over 53k followers on Instagram, and nearly 100k subscribers on YouTube with over 44 million views.
Second six hundred
Stephan Hansen has become the second person ever to record a perfect 600 score in official competition on the WA 18m round at a tournament in Spain in early November. Mike Schloesser was the first to record a perfect 600 at the Nîmes stage of the Indoor World Cup in January 2015, and though Hansen, who was 2015 World Champion and a silver medallist at the 2017 edition, was able to match it, though the record can’t be broken because no Xs are scored indoors.
WA applauded for sustainable sport World Archery has come in for praise from the International Olympic committee for its work on sustainability. The IOC carried out two case studies, one at the Berlin stage of the 2017 World Cup into the practice of recycling water bottles at events, and the other into the environmentally-friendly construction of the World Archery Excellence Centre, as part of a series of investigations into good practice within the Olympic movement. The study into the bottle recycling found the organising team maintained a recycling rate of 99 per cent, dramatically reducing the incidence of single-use plastics, by staying sharp on the use of bottle tokens; while the study into
the Excellence Centre’s insulation and use of solar power found it generated 155,000kWh of energy per year – enough to power 40 average EU households. “Archery is an outdoor sport and it is our responsibility to protect the environment wherever we can,” commented World Archery Secretary General Tom Dielen.
Stretton nominated for Young SPOTY
Jessica Stretton, Britain’s W1 Paralympic and now World champion, has been nominated for Young Sports Personality of the Year. They 17-year-old wcompound archer has made the shortlist of 10, from which three finalists, then one winner, will be drawn in January.
Peineau named Athlete of the Month World Champion Sebastien Peineau of France has been named as the World Games Athlete of the Month for October this year. The compound archer added the outdoor World Championships gold to the indoor one he won in 2016, making him the first male French archer to hold either title. He
upset defending champion and world number one Stephan Hansen of Denmark in the final in Mexico, and told reporters after his win, “If someone had told me before the championships that I would be in the final, I would not have believed it – and now I’m champion.”
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shoot report
Beijing Battle Zahra Nemati and Jeff Fabry became world champions for the second time at the World Para-Archery Championships in Beijing
O
ver a hot September week, the world’s best para-archers met in Beijing, China, for the World Para-Archery Championships. Host nation China topped the medal table with the most gold medals, but Russia, Iran, Great Britain and Italy were close behind in the overall totals.
Compound men open Top men’s compound open seed Marcel Pavlik stumbled in the quarter-finals against China’s Ai Xinliang, who went on to beat the USA’s Ben Thompson 147-144 for a spot in the gold medal match. Thompson’s USA teammate Andre Shelby also put in a 147 in the semi-final round against Italy’s Alberto Simonelli to meet Ai for the title. Ben Thompson put in the highest match score of the medal matches to take the bronze ahead of Alberto Simonelli 146-144, while Ai Xinlang made a point advantage count over Andre Shelby for the gold 142-141.
Compound women open Fourth-seed Tatiana Andrievskaia of Russia was the highest-ranked archer through to the final four, where she beat China’s Lin Yueshan
8 BOW International
144-141 to advance to shoot for gold. She would meet Lin’s teammate Zhou Jiamin, who had beaten Italy’s Maria Andrea Virgilio 143-139 in the semis. Lin Yueshan recovered in the bronze medal match, shooting 145 to Virgilio’s 142 to secure herself the medal. In the final, Zhou Jiamin edged ahead of Tatiana Andrievskaia 141-140 for the world championships title.
Recurve Men Open Zhao Lixue of China had to survive a shoot-off against Gholamreza Rahimi of Iran to progress to the semi-finals, but he had an easier time of it there, dropping only one set below a 24 to take a 6-4 won over Anton Zaypaev to advance to the gold medal match. On the other side of the draw, Hanreuchai Netsiri of Thailand won a shoot-off 10-9 agains fellow Thai archer Boonyarit Chaipoon to meet Zhao in the final. Zaypaev put in sets of 28, 27, 27 in the bronze medal match to get the better of Chaipoon 6-0, while the gold Jeff Fabry earned a second world title 14 years after winning his first
medal match was an altogether closer affair. Hanreuchai Netsiri shot 28, 30 to go 3-1 up, but Zhao Lixue shot a 30 of his own in the third set to level it 3-3. Netsiri pulled ahead again by winning the fourth, but Zhao took the fifth to force a shoot-off – and then won it with a closer 10 to the middle than Netsiri’s.
Recurve women open Reigning Paralmypic champ Zahra Nemati of Iran was
Event photography: Dean Alberga
Britain’s John Cavanagh and Jessica Stretton were untouchable in the W1 mixed team knockouts
Jessica Stretton beat Jo Frith to the women’s W1 gold in a re-match of the Rio Paralympics final
Reigning Paraympic champ Zahra Nemati of Iran was commanding in the women’s open recurve division commanding in the women’s open recurve division, qualifying top seed and dropping only one set in her first three matches. She went on to beat Russia’s Svetlana Barantseva in the semis, and would shoot against Turkey’s Merve Nur Eroglu, who had beaten China’s Wu Chunyan to the final. Barantseva and Wu split the first set of the bronze medal match with 26 points apiece, but Wu got better while Barantseva didn’t, and the bronze went to the Chinese archer 7-1. In the gold medal match, Nemati and Eroglu traded the early sets to stay even at 2-2, but a 27 then perfect 30 from Zahra Nemati sent the next two sets – and the world title – her way as she won the match 6-2 making her a double world champion as well as double Paralympic champion.
W1 Men Top seed Omer Asik of Turkey looked good to take the men’s W1 title here in Beijing – he got through to the gold medal match reasonably comfortably after beating fellow Turkish archer Yigit Caner Aydin 134-132
in the semis. Seventh-seed Jeff Fabry of the USA defeated Konstantin Donskoi of Russia 130-125 in the other semi-final, putting him through to shoot against the top qualifier for the gold medal. Donskoi shot a better match in the bronze medal final than he did in the semis, putting in a 131 to Yigit Caner Aydin’s 126 to take the third step on the podium. The gold medal match was a tight one, but Jeff Fabry just edged out Omer Asik by a point 132-131 to claim his second world title – 14 years after winning his first.
W1 Women Great Britain’s archers show no sign of loosening their dominance of this division – they took the top three spots in qualifying and converted those into the three medal places. Top seed Jessica Stretton took a 14-point win over Japan’s Nako Hirasawa in the semi-finals to advance to the gold medal match, while second and third seeds Jo Frith and Victoria Rumery battled it out in the other, with Jo Frith taking the match 137-133. Rumery
upped her game in the bronze medal match and extended a comfortable eight-point lead over Nako Hirasawa for the bronze 140-132, while Jessica Stretton shot 141 to Jo Frith’s 133 to add the World Championships gold to her growing medal collection.
Teams The USA looked dominant in the men’s compound open division, but the top seeds stumbled against Iran in the semi-finals and went through to shoot for bronze against Russia. Iran met Italy in the final, and a closefought match ended 226-225 in Italy’s favour, with the USA picking up the bronze 228-223. Fourth-seeds China knocked out top women’s compound open team Russia in the semi-finals, but then lost out to Iran in the gold medal contest, which Iran won with a new match team world record of 229. Russia then matched Iran’s new world record of 229 to take the bronze with a 12-point margin over Italy. In the compound open mixed team event, Iran went from top seeds in qualifying to the finals, but they were beaten there on a shootoff by Russia after tying 151-all, who shot 19 to Iran’s 18 to take the top step of the podium. Great Britain collected the bronze after beating Italy 152-151. Russia went from top qualifying position to gold in the recurve open men’s team event, despite an early shoot-off scare against Iran,
individuals
gold
silver
bronze
Compound men open
Ai Xinliang (China)
Andre Shelby (USA)
Ben Thompson (USA)
Compound women open
Zhou Jiamin (China)
Tatiana Andrievskaia (Russia)
Lin Yueshan (China)
Recurve men open
Zhao Lixue (China)
Hanreuchai Netsiri (Thailand)
Anton Zaypaev (Russia)
Recurve women open
Zahra Nemati (Iran)
Merve Nur Eroglu (Turkey)
Wu Chunyan (China)
W1 Men (Rec/Comp)
Jeff Fabry (USA)
Omer Asik (Turkey)
Konstantin Donskoi (Russia)
W1 Women (Rec/Comp)
Jessica Stretton (Great Britain)
Jo Frith (Great Britain)
Victoria Rumary (Great Britain) BOW International 9
shoot report
beating the USA 6-2. Poland took a 5-1 win over Brazil to claim the third step on the podium. After a first-round bye, China won a shootoff against Iran to progress to the recurve women’s open final, where they met Russia. China took a 5-3 win for the gold, while Italy beat Iran in a shoot-off for bronze. In the recurve open mixed team division, Italy knocked top seeds Iran into the bronze medal match, where they recovered to beat Russia 6-2. Italy won an open-and-shut final against Brazil for the gold, taking that in three sets 6-0. In the men’s W1 team event, top seeds Turkey shot a new world record on their way to winning gold, leaving Russia with the silver 205-202. Italy faced Korea for the bronze, but it went the way of the Italians after they built up a four-point advantage 200-196. In the W1 mixed team event, Great Britiain’s pair were hardly troubled on their way to gold: starting from first place after qualifying, their winning margins were 20 points in the semi-finals, and a still-comfortable eight point lead in the gold medal match against Russia. Japan collected bronze after defeating Korea 139-134. The next set of World Championships will mark the first time that both the World Archery Championships and World ParaArchery Championships will share a host as the competitions move to the Netherlands.
Team Compound men open Compound women open Compound open mixed Recurve men open
gold
silver
bronze
Italy
Iran
USA
Alberto Simonelli, Giampaolo Cancelli, Matteo Bonacina
Alisina Manshaezadeh, Hadi Nora, Ramezan Biabani
Andre Shelby, Ben Thompson, Lance Thornton
iran
china
Russia
Somayah Abbaspour, Farzaneh Asgari, Razieh Shir Mohammadi
Li Hui, Lin Yueshan, Zhou Jiamin
Yulia Alekseeva, Tatiana Andrievskaia, Stepanida Artakhinova
Russia
Iran
Great Britain
Stepanida Artakhinova, Ivan Kozlov
Somayeh Abbaspour, Alisina Manshaezadeh
Phoebe Pine, John Walker
Russia
USA
Poland
Sergey Khutakov, Kirill Smirnov, Anton ZaypaeV
Michael Lukow, Kevin Mather, Timothy Palumbo
Pawel Daleszynski, Ireneusz Kapusta, Piotr Sawicki
China
Russia
Italy
Wu Chunyan, Cai Geya, Lin Dandan
Svetlana Barantseva, Irina Batorova, Margarita Sidorenko
Elisabetta Mijno, Veronica Floreno, Annalisa Rosada
italy
Brazil
Iran
Elisabetta Mijno, Stefano Travisani
Thais Silva Carvalho, Francisco Cordeiro
Zahra Nemati, Pouriya Jalalipour
turkey
russia
italy
Omer Asik, Naco Yenier, Yigit Caner Aydin
Konstantin Donskoi, Alexander Dorofeev, Igor Meshkov
Fabio Azzolini, Daniele Cassiani, Salvatore Demetrico
great britain
russia
japan
Jessica Stretton, John Cavanagh
Elena Krutova, Igor Meshkov
Nako Hirasawa, Yoshitsugu Naka
Recurve women open recurve open mixed Men W1
AI Xinliang took men’s W1 gold on home turf
Mixed W1
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shoot report
Im Dong Hyun overcame Wei Chun-Heng to take his second world title
Team
gold
silver
bronze
USa
Italy
Columbia
Braden Gellenthien, Steve Anderson, Kris Schaff
Sergio Pagni, Federico Pagnoni, Alberto Simonelli
Camilo Cardona, Daniel MuĂąoz, Sebastian Arenas
Columbia
india
korea
Sara Lopez, Alejandra Usquiano, Nora Valdez
Trisha Deb, Lil Chanu Paonam, Jyothi Surekha Vennam
Song Yon Soo, Choi Bomin, So Chaewon
korea
germany
italy
Song Young Soo, Kim Jongho
Kristina Heigenhauser, Marcel Traschsel
Irene Franchini, Sergio Pagni
italy
France
Korea
Marco Galiazzo, Mauro Nespoli, David Pasqualucci
Jean-Charles Valladont, Thomas Chirault, Pierre Plihon
Im Dong Hyun, Kim Woojin, Oh Jin Hyek
Korea
Mexico
Chinese Taipei
Chang Hye Jin, Choi Misun, Kang Chae Young
Aida Roman, Mariana Avitia, Alejandra Valencia
Tan Ya-Ting, Lin Shih-Chia, Lin Yu-Hsuan
korea
Germany
Britain
Kang Chae Young, Im Dong Hyun
Lisa Unruh, Forian Kahllund
Naomi Folkard, Patrick Huston
Compound men
Compound women
Compound mixed
Recurve men
Recurve women
recurve mixed
individuals
gold
silver
bronze
Compound men
Sebastien Peineau (France)
Stephan Hansen (Denmark)
Braden Gellenthien (USA)
Compound women
Song Yun Soo (Korea)
Yesim Bostan (Turkey)
Kristina Heigenhauser (Germany)
Recurve men
Im Dong Hyun (Korea)
Wei Chun-Heng (Chinese Taipei)
Steve Wijler (Netherlands)
Recurve women
Ksenia Perova (Russia)
Chang Hye Jin (Korea)
Tan Ya-Ting (Chinese Taipei)
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