Great day last Saturday! I had a wonderful day shooting the winter 3D competition at Artemis Lelystad.
I got up very early to have plenty of time before the competition would commence. At the hosting archery club, it was already getting quite crowded with over 150 competitors and volunteers. After signing in, all the archers submit their name on lists to form groups for the day. The nice thing about 3D competitions is that you don’t have to shoot with people whom shoot in the same category as you are. For example, my group consisted of me and five other people: three horsebows, one hunting bow and a modern recurve bow. But it would also have been possible to have a compound archer with us. Two of the archers were a couple, which I had met at a previous competition. One was a young man whose brother had come with him just for fun, and the other was a very experienced archer. All were good fun, very kind and supporting. They made the day!
At nine o’clock the day starts with a short briefing, welcoming everyone, giving some explanation about the score counting and pressing some safety measures. After that, each group is lead to their first target!
The competition had great targets, each with its own challenge. Let's check out some of them!
I got up very early to have plenty of time before the competition would commence. At the hosting archery club, it was already getting quite crowded with over 150 competitors and volunteers. After signing in, all the archers submit their name on lists to form groups for the day. The nice thing about 3D competitions is that you don’t have to shoot with people whom shoot in the same category as you are. For example, my group consisted of me and five other people: three horsebows, one hunting bow and a modern recurve bow. But it would also have been possible to have a compound archer with us. Two of the archers were a couple, which I had met at a previous competition. One was a young man whose brother had come with him just for fun, and the other was a very experienced archer. All were good fun, very kind and supporting. They made the day!
At nine o’clock the day starts with a short briefing, welcoming everyone, giving some explanation about the score counting and pressing some safety measures. After that, each group is lead to their first target!
The competition had great targets, each with its own challenge. Let's check out some of them!
This should be an easy target: the distance is approximately 20 metres, it's relatively large, stands straight ahead, and it's a clear shot. But... All that camouflage does distract. Especially because the plock (a small stick in the ground against which you must place your front foot) was very close to the net. I missed the first shot by an inch, but had a nice kill with my second arrow.
This snowman is a ‘ walk in target’. You start at the farthest plock, at about 80 metres. My shot was too short… as were the shots of everyone in our group. After the first shot, you are required to walk to a plock which is closer to the target, at about 65 metres. The funny thing is: because you’re standing closer, subconsciously you alter the angle of your shot… so that the arrow falls short again! The trick is of course to not change the angle of the shot. I finally hit it from the third plock at 50 metres!
The trees are making it difficult to estimate the distance here! But the real challenge was that the target moved: it disappeared behind the tree and the popped out every now and then. This made it very hard to loose the arrow at the right time. This was also a so-called ‘hunter target’: each archer is only permitted to shoot one arrow instead of the normal three. I loosed a little too late and hit the blue board, which was luckily placed behind it to catch the many fly-by arrows.
I’m very happy to say I still have all my red arrows. Perhaps I shot so well because I was very determined not to break or lose them, after all the work I put in making them!
At the end of the day I went home with this souvenir: 2nd place in the ladies bowhunter recurve class!
At the end of the day I went home with this souvenir: 2nd place in the ladies bowhunter recurve class!