In October, I had the honour of representing Great Britain at the World Archery 3D Championships in Mokrice, Slovenia. This was my second international selection and my first World Championship.
To be completely truthful I had limited expectations.
Firstly, I found the European Championships last year particularly daunting and I recognised the names of several high calibre archers on the entry list from last year’s event, so I knew it was going to be a very competitive field. Then there is the unknown of the delegations you don’t often meet – ie Canada and the US, who have a big tradition of shooting 3D animal targets. I expected them to put in strong performances, especially as they were coming in big numbers.
Secondly, WA 3D has been gaining incredible popularity year on year in the UK, but compared to some of our neighbours (ie, the French), we don’t yet have as many courses available to us to compete in as others might have. To be competitive, often, archers either join NFAS and/or travel to courses in Europe. This also means that it can be challenging to get three qualifying scores.
I’m really grateful that we have access to brilliant courses in SCAS – you’ll no doubt be familiar with Overton and Fort Purbrook – and excited that there are a further two courses in the works for 2025. One being Friars Gate archers, who hosted the Sussex 3D in August and did a brilliant job of it, and are due to put on a 24 target shoot next year. I’m not sure how much I can say about the other course…. they are hoping to acquire a number of targets early in in the New Year so they can start offering monthly informal practice sessions ahead of hosting their own 3D competition. More on that later…
Lastly, on a more personal note, I haven’t been very well leading into the competition and I was having tests done until the Friday before I flew out. All of these things contributed to me going into the competition feeling … incredibly relaxed!
Now onto the event
I travelled on the Sunday before the event with Chris Horan. We arrived at the airport at 3.30 am – and met up with fellow archers James and Sarah for our 6.30 am flight into Zagreb, Croatia. Mokrice is just over the border in Slovenia, so it was far easier and quicker to fly to Zagreb.
Flying with archery kit can be challenging, I would always recommend reading in detail the individual airline policies, as some have a few surprises. I won’t name names, but one for examples lets you fly with a bow, but no arrows. Another will let you fly with both but you have to remove the points from your arrows, another asks for your arrows and bow to be in separate pieces of luggage etc etc. If you have one, it’s a good idea to place an air tag in your luggage, that way you will know if it’s actually made it, or if like in the case of a US compound archer, it never left the aircraft and is now in Istanbul… (you’ll be pleased to know she was reunited with her bow case ahead of official practice and equipment inspection).
Our flight into Zagreb was slightly delayed, but unlike the rest of the team who ended up arriving in the early hours of the morning, only by about half an hour. The logistics with events like these are incredibly complex and rely on crew of people who volunteer their time. Without them there would be no event.
The transport manager overseas the schedule for the volunteers collecting and dropping archers back for their return flight. They will be monitoring your flight, and they will be there waiting for you to get you to your hotel safely – even if it’s the middle of the night.
We were collected by the transport manager himself and after a short minibus ride, we arrived at the hotel late morning and went straight to take photos and collect our accreditation. You are required to be in your official team kit for the photo.
Some of the team met up for lunch briefly and we went to unofficial practice. It gave us a chance to familiarise ourselves with the venue, find our dedicated tent area and check our kit had made it all in one piece. It’s a good time for hygiene checks, ie replacing knocks, checking spare kit etc. Our Team Manager also took note of what kit we would need in case of equipment failure during qualifications. Some archers simply take spare limbs and a different set of arrows, others have a completely spare set up. It’s important to know exactly what is needed as from the moment equipment failure is radio’d in, the 30 min countdown starts. It can take 10 -15 minutes to reach certain part of the course alone.
As well as unofficial practice and accreditation, there is usually a first Team Manager’s meeting the day before the event starts, where key information is provided to the TMs by judges and officials for sharing with their individual delegations.
The entire team, ie Ian, Jed, James, Sarah, Katherine, Romaine and I all met up at dinner and our TM Chris went through housekeeping and key information provided by the officials, including the bus schedule for the next day.
Official practice is usually split in two sessions due to the vast number of participants. It’s done alphabetically. Delegations are allocated a few hours of practice, for which they must wear their official matching kit.
During this time, delegations are called one by one for equipment inspection. Spot checks also take place at random times during the event itself to ensure we remain compliant throughout the week.
It’s also a time when judges expand their portfolio of knowledge by checking what variations of kit archers use.
For example, I was using a new sight for which the manufacturer hadn’t yet produced a sight tape cover, so archers had created their own versions. Some archers had screwed a fletching into the sight bar and were using that to hide their tape whereas I had used a thin strip of grip tape with a small sticky bit at the bottom, which I lifted on and off.
That evening, was also the Opening Ceremony.
Opening with a bang
We had equipment inspection and official practice in the morning so we all got back on the buses from our hotels for lunch and some quiet time. James, Chris and I elected to go to the shop for some ice cream, followed by a bit of ranging practice.
Then it was back on the bus for the opening ceremony. If your practice session was in the afternoon, you simply stayed on site until the evening.
Each delegation had to select a flag bearer – we picked Ian. The ceremony lasted maybe an hour, with some speeches from the officials and judges, as well as an archer who made the pledge on behalf of all participants, to practice fair play and conduct themselves in the spirit of the event. There was then a cultural display and a welcome speech from the Lady of the Castle of Mokrice.
There was then an opportunity to mingle with all other delegations before busing back to the hotels for dinner.
Heading into qualifications
As with all events gathering many people from various backgrounds, lurgies are rife. And it was no different for me as I woke up in the early hours with a sore throat and a cough.
After a quick breakfast we piled on an early bus to the venue for practice and day 1 of qualifications. For me, it was about deciding whether I would shoot my main or spare bow and which arrows seemed to group better and I decided my spare kit worked better.
You’ll be familiar with practice fields at UK shoots. Well, it’s the same at an International event, only busier and with a timing systems set to 2 min. The queue for the line can be 3 people deep, especially on the shorter targets as everyone, sighted and unsighted archers are all vying for space.
I mentioned the competitiveness of the Compound field, but I would be remiss not to mention the unsighted bow types. They came out in force this year, not only were they spread over two of the three courses, but there were also 8 waiting groups! The talent is undeniable. If you’ve watched the finals, you’ll know that they shot with incredible precision.
Practice over, we grabbed our packed lunches, assembled behind our respective pegs and after the customary exchange of handshakes, pins and other goodies that archers bring to swap, we walked out onto the course. Organisers do their best to avoid archers seeing much of the course on the walk outs, but it always pays to keep your eyes peeled on the way, you never know what you will spot. In my case, I managed to spot a very cute hungry kitten on my first target. (No, that was not a foam animal, but a very real kitten that one of the volunteers took home!)
The judges blew their whistles, and we were off. It’s a World Champs so I wasn’t expecting any easy shots but shooting in the UK has served me well. 3D targets are a big investment and we don’t often find that all courses have the largest targets so we’re quite used to shooting middle-ish sized ones at our max distances. That’s very much what we got here. There was one large bear but otherwise, everything long was wolf-size. And boy, was it long! I managed to get one target spectacularly wrong and missed, but followed through with an 11. After day 1, this put me in joint 16th, which is the cut off for elimination matches. Everyone shot well, achieving their objectives.
Back to the hotel after day 1. The hotel has a fantastic waterpark which a few of us took advantage of before going to a pre-dinner team meeting. Facilities are really important for an event of this size. Not least because it’s a lot of people to cater for, but also because we are there to perform so a comfortable night’s sleep, a good shower and food to fuel us and key. They did not disappoint. The food was phenomenal! I’ve heard of events where athletes didn’t quite have access to enough food or ran out of protein (oh, erm Paris Olympics), but not here. Everything was top notch.
During the pre-dinner team meeting, Chris provided a further update from the officials, the bus schedule and we shared tips and impressions of our respective courses, so that those shooting it in day 2 knew what to expect.
For day 2, archers are ranked according to their scores, so I shot with a couple new target companions. This second day, the course was shorter but far more technical than day 1 with some very dark targets in the woods shot from a sunny position, meaning they were near on impossible to see, to steep up and downs. It all felt very.. familiar. Think of a mix between Pentref and Overton.
I made it through to eliminations
I ended up shooting a little better than day 2 and climbing up a couple places to secure my space in the eliminations.
It was then back to the hotel for a debrief over dinner, and going through mixed team and team rounds rules ahead of the next day. While a number of us weren’t shooting that day, we all elected to get on an early bus to support those who were and proudly watched Jed and Sarah make it through to the final.
Individual eliminations were planned for the next day and I had limited expectations. I was to shoot against the third seed, Elodie Barret from France. Logically I wasn’t expected to win that match.
I wasn’t due to shoot until the afternoon but (unlike my competitor), I caught an early bus to watch Jed and Ian in the eliminations. This allowed me to have an early look at the elimination course ahead of my own first match. Both courses 1 and 2 were side by side, but having limited expectations, I didn’t bother looking at the second course. And that would end up being my biggest mistake of the week.
Finally, it came time for me to shoot against the third seed. Eliminations go incredibly quickly. Your time goes down to 90 seconds to range and shoot your two arrows so there is no time to spare. You might see photos with a judge holding a yellow card, that’s to indicate there are 30 seconds remaining. At that point, you want to have shot your first arrow already. I channelled my inner Gary Cole, whose advice was to ‘pick a number and just shoot’. I may have a case of slightly over thinking things… My opponent’s support team had a timer, which we could both hear when she was shooting so we also knew by sound when we got to 30 seconds. Is it legal? I wasn’t complaining either way.
When you shoot eliminations, you are again in a group of 4, meaning there are two matches taking place at the same time, one from each bracket. Unfortunately, the archers from the same match always shoot first on each target. It can be advantageous to be in the second bracket as you always shoot second, giving you more time. Unfortunately, I was in the first bracket, so there really was no time to think.
Instead of ranking each individual target, I kept glancing around as I retrieved my arrows and others were shooting, to gage how much I had to add/take out for my next target. This served me well and I ended up only requiring only a hit on my last arrow to win the match. Which I realised, promptly panicked, and promptly dropped my arm. To shoot a 5. Phew.
That’s when it dawned on me that I really should have checked course 2 out, because I immediately moved into my next match without any time to prep. I was shooting very well up until I came to that same animal I had missed on day 1 of qualification. I couldn’t see its legs and I had a decision to make. Shoot it off 36m, the same as the longest shot in my first match, or shoot it on 41. I picked wrong and missed. I shot my 2nd arrow off 36m and hit it dead centre. My opponent breathed a big sign of relief. At that level, there’s no coming back from those kind of mistakes. She ended up winning Bronze and I finished in 8th place.
Would I have made it into the semis, were it not for this mistake? Possibly, possibly not. I would have definitely gleaned a few places though. This comes down to experience. Had I split it down the middle, I would have hit an 8.
That is a lesson learned – always, always back yourself. And prepare for all scenarios. Turning up early to look at the matches was a good move, but I really should have looked at both courses, just to be on the safe side.
On the positive side, I could now focus on cheering Jed and Ian on, and also our archer friends from other countries.
Finals day
It was another early start with buses starting from 7.20 am.
Unsighted archers shot in the morning, with compound archers last.
If you haven’t had the chance to watch the matches yet, they are nail biting! Almost every single one was decided on the final target, including Ian and Jed’s. You might even catch me in floods of tears as they were both crowned World Champions.
There was an especially dramatic moment early afternoon when a barebow archer from Italy shot the wrong last target, which cost her the match. I suspect that the coach, who had been on the field that morning with other archers, didn’t realise that another target had been selected for the afternoon sessions. But watch and see for yourself.
The final was well attended, as it should be, with the President of the Republic of Slovenia coming to watch the compound matches and give a closing speech!
Once the matched were over, it was time to thank all the volunteers and congratulate all the winners, before, you guessed it, busing it back to the hotels.
Dinner was a buffet with all archers and officials, followed by a dance. Some delegations had transfers back to the airport as early as 2.30 am, and others a 17 hour drive back, so it was a short celebration for some.
What struck me once again, is how collegiate the whole event was. Yes, there was absolute focus from all the participants, but there was also support across delegations and friendship, and banter. Field Archers are some of the friendliest athletes around, but 3D archers are on a whole other level.
Another observation is the popularity of unsighted bows. I have never seen such a large gathering, and the competition level was unreal. There were no guarantees who would win the event, it was anyone’s game, such was the depth of field.
Lastly, 3D does tend to skew slightly older, with the oldest participant being 74 years old! 3D archery really is for everyone and there clearly is no time limit on being competitive.
What next?
I wish I’d been on that finals field. And with how I was shooting, I feel like I could have made it through to the final four, were it not for that one rookie mistake. If anything, it’s made me more determined to continue working hard next year and go to the Europeans in Serbia having closed the gap on my ranging errors.
I have looked at the calendar for next year and there are more shoots in the UK than there have ever been, but I will also be incorporating trips across the channel into my training programme. Bring on Belgrade 2025!
I couldn’t do any of this without mentioning the incredible support I receive. From funding through SCAS, to the companies that support me with discounts, and also a long list of individuals who help with mental resilience, equipment set up and generally being really supportive. Thank you to each and every one of you!