1 into 3

Well its week one into a 3 week stay away from the OTC in Chula Vista. Stops include New Jersey for the Gold Cup, Atlanta, GA for World Team Trials and a visit to home in Florida. 

Since the last blog post this is what has happened;

-Visited Croatia for the second leg of the World Cup

-Shot several personal bests

-Finished 4th at Texas Shootout

-Finished 5th at Gold Cup

Croatia is a beautiful country near Italy bordering the Mediterranean sea, it served as a beautiful background for the second leg of the Archery World Cup. We shot in the city of Porec' the country reminded me of home, being so luscious and green with bright blue skies. The weather was perfect, no rain a little chilly in the morning but warmed up nicely during the day. I had a great experience and enjoyed my time shooting with the best of the best. One exciting thing that I found out was my world ranking. My ranking was 69th going into the OR's and jumped to 66th after Saturday. This tournament I walked away with an idea of what I have to do to push myself to be the best I can be.  

Next on the list is Texas Shootout that is held in College Station, Texas on the A&M Lacrosse fields next to Mt. Aggie. The weather was usual texas weather with super strong winds topping 30+MPH gusts. On both days of the tournament there was a forecast for rain and 20MPH steady winds with higher gusts. Luckily there was no rain but it was at least 20MPH winds. I ended up ranking 4th shooting a 323 and a 320 (If I remember correctly) for a total of 623 I managed everything well both physically and mentally and kept fighting to shoot better and better. Sunday was the OR, I shot well made it into the final rounds and then luck just wasn't on my side after that. I got beat in the super windy Semi-Finals. My opponent had a few very lucky shots with only 5 seconds left to pull back and release and somehow shooting a 10. Next I shot against 5 time Olympian Butch Johnson in the Bronze Medal finals. During the first end I had another unlucky bout with the wind this time pushing me and my arrow out into the black. I ended up losing by 2 points and taking 4th. I had a great time at this shoot and look forward to next year. 

Gold cup came and went this past weekend. We avoided rain thankfully and had a great shoot as far as weather goes. I ended up ranking 5th, shooting a personal best at 50M, a 332. My Fita ranking was 1285, the first score under 1300. I messed up at 90 and 70 shooting about 30 points or so below my current average. Sunday was the OR's I had a bye the first round and shot 3 matched up into the 1/8th finals where I met Butch Johnson yet again, and losing by 2 points in the final match of the day for me. I had one bad shot that I have almost completely worked out of my shooting routine. So I cant complain with a 5th finish there but I did have a chance of making it into the finals and will get there soon.

Last is the personal bests I have shot in the past month or so. They are;

Fita Personal best in training 1320 

70M personal best in training 342

Double 70M personal best training 668

Double 70M competition 643 (Texas)

30M personal best training 353

50M personal best 332 (NJ)

So things are yet again looking promising I just have to keep at it. This whole next week we are on the field for the World Team Trials preparing for the competition. Wish me luck,

Jake