Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 156 i Bow International

The Italian international Michele Frangilli’s list of recurve achievements over three decades is pretty extraordinary. It includes an Olympic gold medal, the senior outdoor World Championship, and multiple world records at many distances – plus no less than three World Field Championships individual titles. He remains one of the few elite recurve archers who, throughout his career, has given equal importance to the non-Olympic disciplines. I once asked him how shooting field had influenced his career, and he said this: “Field shooting is the university of archery. I have practised field shooting since I was 10 years old, and I have always loved this discipline. The progression to the full control of the shot in any situation needs training in any possible shooting condition. This can only happen during field…

India's Jyothi Surekha Vennam prevented a Korean clean sweep of the gold medals at the 22nd Asian Archery Championships, when she won the compound women’s final on the penultimate day of competition in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in November. The win went down to millimetres, after her opponent, Korea's Oh Yoohyun, had an arrow downgraded in a dramatic finale. “I’m super happy today,” said Vennam after the match. “I was waiting for the judge’s call [and knew] whatever the judge decides it will be the final one… Maybe it will be a tie or it will be a win.” It was Vennam's fourth gold in four editions of the continental championships, after a top-level year during which she took three silver medals at the World Championships. Apart from the compound women's individual,…

The sport has been confirmed as part of the programme for the third European Games, to be held in Poland in 2023. The quadrennial competition previously took place in Baku in 2015 and Minsk in 2019. World Archery Europe president Mario Scarzella said he appreciated the confidence the EOC (European Olympic Committees) had placed in archery, following the introduction of mixed team Olympic qualification and compound competitions at the 2019 European Games. “On behalf of the entire European archery family, I can assert that we have welcomed with great pride and satisfaction the confirmation that our sport will be part also of the third edition of the European Games in 2023,” he added. “I am very much looking forward to seeing the best European archers competing in the 2023 Kraków-Małopolska…

After numerous titles in field and 3D, including the 3D World Championship in 2015, Austrian Nico Wiener, age 24, secured the target world championship title in Yankton in September – without turning professional, and still holding down a normal job. An archer since 2009, at six feet four and with a draw length of 33 inches, Wiener uses a custom-made Hoyt Invictas bow. How did he do it? Do you remember much about the moment you became champion? At that moment itself, you couldn't really believe that I had done it. Nobody had expected that. Actually, it was only when I came home that I realised what I had achieved. It was the first individual medal for Austria at a WA World Championship. And it just feels great what I…

After a year in which an overheated Olympics sucked almost all the archery oxygen out of the room, a weekend in the cool green at the National Field Archery Society’s (NFAS) yearly national championships sounded absolutely ideal. This autumn event is shot in woodland on animal paper faces attached to bosses. The fact they managed to hold a shoot at all is impressive; weather and circumstances were not kind and the postponed weekend managed to coincide with a fuel ‘crisis’ in the UK, which put off even some diehards. The original venue fell through after the landowner sacked all the events staff returning from furlough, and the new venue, west of Durham in the north-east of England, has a camping and admin field that is struggling with mud and car…

When today's competitive archers glance at the gold through the lens of their chosen bow sight, they may be forgiven for not reflecting upon the antecedence of these now most elaborate and essential objects. But the sight’s purpose has rested upon ingenuity, advance and adaptation across the centuries, for ‘sighting’ has become the prerequisite of accuracy. Two simple aiming aids preceded the present set-ups, one an attachment to the bow, the other secured to the bow-hand, and we’ll glance at each. In the mid-1870s James Spedding, a competitive archer and member of the Royal Toxophilite Society, seeking to improve his scores took a dressmaker’s bright bead pin and attached it to his longbow’s upper limb. This he arranged to adjust horizontally or vertically at will to line up with the…

An Indian governmental organisation has honoured Indian archer Harvinder Singh for his bronze medal-winning performance at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. He became the first Indian athlete to win a medal in archery at an Olympics or Paralympics. India is consistently underrepresented medal-wise at the Games, despite the country's enormous population. Singh was presented with a Siropao robe, a high honour for Indian Sikhs. The 31-year-old beat Korea’s Kim Min Su in the bronze match, which went to a shoot-off where Singh won with a perfect 10. Singh took up archery after watching the London 2012 Olympics on TV, and had previously won bronze at the Bangkok 2019 Asian Para Archery Championships.…

For many target archers, shooting indoors this winter will still be restricted. With that prospect in mind, it’s worth giving field archery a go if you have never tried it. Field archery is enormous fun and great for families, as adults and juniors can shoot together on the same targets. It’s also Covid-safe – or at least much safer than heading indoors, in a coronavirus climate that remains uncertain. The skills crossover is seamless and you can use your existing equipment. Shooting on uneven ground, up and down hill, will improve your posture, form and understanding of the effects of light on your aiming and string picture, all of which will be of benefit on the target shooting line. Field archery will broaden your archery horizons, giving you a better…

Target archery is usually conducted outdoors on large fields, exposed to the weather. Consequently, minimising the distance an arrow drifts in wind is important. To do that, it is best to use small-diameter, high-mass arrows. Easton Protours or X10s are a good choice. just take our target archery-optimised gear to the field course and do reasonably well – and many archers do just that – we can do better if we optimise it for the differences. First, I will consider the ever-changing target distance. For a World Archery field course, shot from the red pegs, the target distance varies between 10m and 60m. Once we are on the course, there are no practice shots – the first arrow at every target is a scoring arrow. Consequently, it is very important…

Nothing was going to stop the 48th National Field Archery Society (NFAS) paper-face championships, though a lot of things tried. Normally held on the third weekend of September, two venues cancelling because of Covid-related issues saw the date moved to 2-3 October 2021. The delay meant travelling archers faced fuel supply issues on their journey to Burnhopeside Hall near Durham, while two weeks of almost constant rain made life difficult for Richard Wright, NFAS Field Officer, and his team of course-layers. Plans were made, amended and replanned through the weekend as the camping and parking areas became impassable with thick mud. To accommodate the shorter days, the number of targets was reduced from the usual 40 to 36, all set in virgin woodland. Despite it being late in the season,…

RISER: Uukha Xpro2, the lightest 27in riser on the market, weighing in at 1225g “Uukha were my first sponsors. They are a French company, so it felt natural to start there. Very good equipment, I have been with them for five years now, but I will be trying the latest Gillo, as I am quite curious about all the hype behind it.” LIMBS: Uukha SX+, S-Curve profile. I shoot a 72in bow, poundage on the fingers is 39lb. BUTTON: Prestige Micro Click by Arc Systeme (France) uses magnets instead of springs. “It is an interesting plunger and you can be very accurate in your tuning, and it is especially easy to adjust on the course. I have used the previous plunger by them, too, but before that it was Werner…

Once again, our annual quiz is here to challenge all you fans of our global sport. Pictured right are a selection of international archers, all the photos taken over the past two years by Dean Alberga. As it’s been an Olympic year, we’ve included three individual Olympic champions, too. All you have to do is name the archers in the photographs and you could win a year’s gift subscription for a friend to your soaraway Bow. You might have to do a bit of sleuthing, but it’s definitely solvable. To give you a sporting chance, we’ve added some extra clues this time. So give it your best shot!…

Easton Archery, the world’s largest arrow company, is expanding and increasing capacity at its Salt Lake City, Utah, manufacturing facilities, aft er a worldwide increase in demand for its carbon arrow products. “We expect 2022 to be another busy year for everyone in the archery industry,” said Tyson Yates, Easton’s director of sales. “Our newest arrow, the Sonic 6.0 series, that will be made in the USA at our Utah factory that we expect will be a popular addition to our line. “Th is expansion to the carbon facility is part of our continued effort to be a great partner for our retailers,” he added.…

On the evening of Wednesday, 13 October 2021, five people were killed and three seriously injured after a series of assaults in the small Norwegian town of Kongsberg, about 50 miles south-west of the capital, Oslo. From the first news broadcast onwards, it was described as a ‘bow-and-arrow attack’. Five people dead, a question as to whether it was a terrorist incident, and the news flashing round the world with the words ‘bow-and-arrow attack’ firmly attached, along with a well-syndicated image of an unfletched arrow sticking in a wall at an odd angle. Archers all over the world gulped. Kongsberg appeared to be the quintessential quiet small town where this kind of thing simply could not happen. “Completely inconceivable,” said the local mayor, as the story continued to develop. After…

From the first day of my beginner’s archery course, I wanted to shoot longbow. This wasn’t based upon anything rational – I had never even held a bow before, let alone a longbow – but while the beginner’s recurve I’d been given was doing a reasonable job of getting the arrows towards the target, it certainly wasn’t thrilling me. I bought my first longbow and felt like I’d come home. To try and distil why shooting a longbow is special is difficult. For me, there are three factors. firstly, I love the simplicity: you have just a piece of wood and a piece of string. There is nothing sticking out, nothing to adjust and nothing to come loose. Then there is the experience of shooting – with just a leather…

If you shoot field in the UK, you might well recognise Scott Stanbury. An archer since 2006, he discovered field in 2009 and it's possible you’ve shared a peg with him since then, or seen him receiving a medal in his preferred class of Freestyle (Olympic recurve). His achievements include multiple podium finishes in the past few years across the UK field archery societies, with 11 National Field Archery Society championship medals, including five golds; and 28 with the English Field Archery Association, including 13 golds. Internationally, he’s been selected to shoot and placed at European field championships, winning gold in the team 2019 European Field Championship. I caught up with him after his most-recent victory at the NFAS Championships in October 2021. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BACK…

Archery has a well-established place in popular entertainment, and the prevalence of it in movies and TV over the past decade or so has long been noted. But there is another medium in which the sport has a big presence, and which now – whether you like it or not – has a permanent place in our culture: video games. Quite a few games revolve around medieval scenarios or fantasy worlds inspired by the Middle Ages and antiquity. Accordingly, the presence of bows and crossbows is hardly surprising. Archers appear as combat units in quite a few strategy games; the widespread genre of role-playing games always offers the possibility of using the bow as a ranged weapon or even playing a ‘class’ of character who specialises in using the bow…

Bow International is, of course, the finest gift you can give another archer this Christmas. Imagine nine thrilling issues dropping on to your friend’s doormat during the year. It’s like giving them nine presents, right? The gift that keeps on giving. Bow International unites modern target archers and celebrates diversity within archery through its pages, with a regular selection of material across disciplines, including practical pointers on how to improve technique and global coverage of World Archery target, field and traditional competitions. But you know that – you’re reading it! So why not give a friend the chance to do the same? We’ll also send you a virtual gift card that you can forward to your friend. TO ENTER, VISIT THE BOW INTERNATIONAL WEBSITE AT BOW-INTERNATIONAL.COM. THE COMPETITION WILL BE…