First day of competition in the NFAA National Championships

I am the lone Aussie shooting with all the Americans for the NFAA National Field Championships. Most of the Aussie team think that it is too much archery, to shoot five days of a national championship and then follow that immediately with another five days of the World Championship. They may be right; but I don’t have to shoot all the five days, I can post a score made up of three total days out of the five, so I will decide in a few days if I can fit in a rest day.

There are a handful of other foreign competitors taking part in the NFAA event, and we are classed as ‘guest’ shooters; which means we are ineligible for medals, but can participate anyway. I see it as great practice for the upcoming world event, where Australia has around 15-20 participating archers.

The first day was a ‘field round’; 28 targets with 4 arrows per target at distances varying from 11 yards to 80 yards. My shoot group was made up of a Namibian woman – Bea, and two Austrian men, Herwig and Klement. I had shot with Herwig in Argentina in 2012. Here is a short video of us all together, getting ready for the starting signal to commence the round:

This was a very friendly group, and I had a great time shooting with these guys. We all shot pretty well, I shot an above average score and was very happy. I did feel some nerves, as it is the first day of competition and I tend to place a lot of pressure on myself to shoot well; but I am learning to let that go and just enjoy the flow of the moment – ironically performance is best when I am relaxed and it feels easy to do. Bea took a short video of four shots I made on a 55 yard target, which is a target of 65cm diameter at that range.

Weather was superb, a little humid but no higher than about 28 Celsius, ideal weather really. We had a lot of fun chatting during the round, and making new friends with each other. I’ve included a few shots to indicate the lovely scenery here at the Yankton range.

The 80 yard shot, from a large platform, the toughest shot of the day.

Score of 16 on the 65 yard shot, my four arrows were a nice group, and this is tough to do at this range.

Shameless selfie. Bea is shooting in the background

Once all the shooting was over with, I went to greet the rest of the Australian team, who had arrived around midday. We’re all holed up in the Best Western Kelly Inn, which is right next to the archery range. Many of the Aussies were pretty tired and jetlagged, but all were in good spirits and pleased to be in the USA. I was invited to eat with a couple of Americans; Vince and Paul – great fellas (father and son) I had met in Argentina. Afterwards I sat and had some wine with the Aussies, who had come down for an early dinner. Good times!

Vince & Paul and I

Joy Wood (hard core longbow shooter) and I

Steve & Rod & I