Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Mexico

This last week, The Resident Athlete Team traveled down to Tijuana for the Mexican Grand Prix. We left on Wednesday morning the day of practice. The week went like this;

Wednesday travel to Mexico and Practice Day
Thursday 90M and 70M Ranking
Friday 50M and 30M Ranking 
Saturday Individual Elimination Rounds
Sunday Team Rounds

The field was nice to shoot on with great easy pulling targets. The Hardest thing about shooting on the field was the lack of lines painted on the ground dividing the targets. It was very easy to shoot other targets next to you. During practice I did this a few times, but not during the competition. We stayed on site at the Olympic Training Center down there. Their rooms were similar to ours here in the USA. They didn't have heaters or hot water there, so it made staying warm difficult at night. The food I felt just didn't suffice and provide enough nutrients. So its a very good thing we brought essential snack foods and some PB&J with us. 

Thursday started off the Ranking rounds, there was heavy wind during the whole tournament. During 90M I was aiming off the target butt which is over three feet in diameter for most of the 36 arrows shot there. I ended up shooting a 294 out of a possible 360 which put me in fourth place for that distance. We moved to 70M and began shooting there, the wind still howling. I shot pretty well for the wind conditions. I ended up with a 314 for the distance and ranked in 4th for the end of day one. Friday started off well with still windy conditions, shooting a 324 for the 36 arrow round. Which was the third highest round on the field, giving me a Bronze medal for that distance. 30M was un-bearable windy conditions rounding off with a score of 339, good enough to move me into Third with a final ranking FITA score of 1274. I received a Bronze for the FITA score as well.

Saturday was the Individual Head to Head match play competition. With the wind still blowing strong, I found myself shooting pretty decent for the conditions. I cruised through the 1/8th and 1/4th elimination rounds and then found myself pitted against Juan Serrano of Mexico in the Semi-Finals. The winner of this match would go on to the Gold Medal Match and the loser the Bronze Match. Serrano was the TQ at the Olympic Games this past year and finished up the Olympics in 4th place. I did not falter against him despite his proven success, defeating him in the Semi-Finals and moved on to the Finals. The match was shot by itself at the end of the day being the Finale of Gold Medal rounds. All the shooters of the day were watching the match, most were cheering for Mexico, I did hear a few cheers from the Latin 
crowd for the USA. 

Juan Serrano
I went into the match with a game plan of being very aggressive due to the windy conditions, not allowing myself to be beaten up by the wind. The only down-fall to this strategy was to be too aggressive shooting too far into the wind resulting in left shots. Being the higher ranked archer, I decided to shoot first. After the first end of 3 arrows I was up one point with. He shot first the next end, after six arrows I had fallen behind five points back. I continued with my aggressive shooting style going into the third end, myself shooting first I came back to 3 points down. With one end to go, I was determined to win. I opened with a 10 and a 9 the first two arrows, the other archer shooting an 8 and 7, this put me close I knew. I made a great shot the last arrow, but felt the fault of my aggressive shooting style, hitting further left, almost where I was aiming off for the wind. Mexico shoots a 10 and wins. I was very satisfied with my shooting the whole day. I stuck with my strategy and came out nearly on top. I will just have to go with a modified aggressive shooting style to monitor when I am being just a tad bit too aggressive. 

Gold Medal Match
The team rounds went well, I shot pretty well in the yet again windy conditions. My team ended up 4th, just a spot out of the medals. All-in-all this was a good tournament for me. I fell like I only shot 2 bad shots the entire tournament. 

I am very glad to be back in the USA in my own warm bed eating good food. I had a good event and cant wait for the next tournament. 


Team USA
Jake



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