- 10 Aug 08, 04:39 PM
Thunder and lightning, deafening chants from raucous spectators, torrential storms and, in the end, tears.
I had no idea archery could be like this.
Midway through the afternoon, word had whistled round the Brits in Beijing that Alison Williamson, Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess were within touching-distance of GB's first medal of these Olympics.
In their way stood China. And that's where the trouble started.
You could hear the stadium almost before you could see it. Packed into the steeply-sided stands were thousands of headband-wearing, face-painted China fans, knee-deep in an ear-splitting shout-off with the thousands of South Korea fans who filled almost every other seat.
You could have forgiven the British trio if they'd taken one step onto the narrow v-shaped field for the semi-final and then fled for their lives.
Drums were beating. Flags were waving. Songs were being sung with such gusto that the sickly sounds of Shania Twain coming over the PA system were completely drowned out.
The only Briton visible in the stands was BOA chairman Colin Moynihan, and only then because there was a small child sitting in front of him.
Williamson, however, is made from stern stuff. This was her fifth appearance at an Olympics, and initially she and her young team-mates matched the home favourites point for point.
Folkard, a dead-eyed former music student, led the way with a perfect 10 into the gold with her first arrow. Burgess, who wears the same lucky pair of socks for every competition, ignored the gusting winds to keep Britain in it after 12 of the 24 shots.
Every arrow that China landed, meanwhile, was greeted by roars of delight from the partisan crowd.
Juanjuan Zhang, pulling the bowstring tight into her right cheek, began to pile on the pressure as the first rumble of thunder sounded overhead.
As the third end developed, the Brits began to waver. With the wind rising in strength, Folkard fired in a six and grimaced in frustration. Williamson followed that with a seven before Burgess did the same.
The crowd smelt blood. Ling Cheng landed an eight, Dan Guo a 10 as the rain began to fall. When Zhang sent her arrow soaring the 70 metres into the outer gold ring for a nine, the British dream of a gold medal match against the Koreans began to fade.
Still, you thought - there was always the bronze up for grabs. And with opponents France having qualified only fifth compared to Britain's second, it was still odds-on that the girls would soon be celebrating GB's first Beijing medal.
At that point, the sky turned black. Lightning crackled down in fearsome jags, thunder exploding overhead. Rain smashed down in bucket-sized lumps.
Forked lightning and long bows made from carbon not being a great combination, the archers ran for cover.
Small lakes appeared on the in-field. The rest of Olympic Green disappeared in the grey murk until the only thing visible were the floodlights overhead.
The fans simply donned the free plastic ponchos being dished out by the uber-efficient organisers and carried on as noisily as before.
That's the way it stayed for almost an hour. In that time, news came through of Nicole Cooke's soggy triumph a few miles away across the sodden city.
Right. So the archers weren't going to win Britain's first medal. They weren't going to win a gold or silver. But the French were still there to be beaten, non?
From the very first arrow it was knee-knockingly close. Burgess wobbled with a six but was rescued by Williamson's 9. France went seven, eight, nine to give Britain a slender lead of 48-46 a quarter of the way through.
Suddenly the French archers began to find their range. Berengere Schuh pinged in a 10, Virginie Arnold and Sophie Dodemont a nine apiece.
97-97 at halfway.
Folkard straightened out her floppy blue sunhat and hit back with a 10. Burgess followed suit. France matched them nervelessly. 125-125.
Folkard fired off an eight into the inner red ring. Williamson, her eyes shaded by a low-slung golf visor, drifted left and picked up just a seven. Burgess buried hers in the outer gold for a vital nine.
Unfortunately, the French trio were accelerating. They went 9, 8, 8 to move into the lead for the first time, and then stretched their lead to three points with just three arrows remaining per team as Arnold nailed an inner gold, screamed with delight and high-fived her team-mates.
Williamson, who gave up her job as a primary school teacher to concentrate on these Olympics, then somehow produced a 10 with her final arrow to leave France 25 points from the bronze.
The crowd howled with excitement. Moynihan shifted in his seat. The rain started up again.
It made no difference. Schuh, blinking behind her glasses, picked off an eight when seven would have done, and suddenly it was over.
No first medal. No national anthem. No big headlines in the papers back home.
Afterwards, both Williamson and Folkard were in tears, even as the stadium rocked to the sound of Korea dismantling China in an epic final.
Williamson seemed to be blaming herself, saying she had let the side down even if her team-mates tried telling her different.
Two points were all that separated them from the podium at the end. But when you've gone for gold and ended up with nothing there's very little consolation to be had.
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Comments
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China looked in a different class to Britain and France; and South Korea were a class above China! The only close contest seemed to be for the bronze. One of the 'best' things about archery is that there's no argument and no judgement. France won the bronze because they were more accurate when it mattered - simple as that.
What was disconcerting - particularly during the final - was the whistles from the crowd. It was going on during both China and South Korea's attempts... though seemed slightly louder during South Korea's arrows. I hope this isn't a sign of the Chinese fans taking home advantage to an unwelcome level. I guess one of the tests of this will be when a Chinese tennis player is playing...
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When reporting an Olympic event, would it be possible to give the actual result? It makes wading through the windy descriptive verbiage that most professional editors would have cut back with a machete more worthwhile. Where on Earth is the BBC getting these'reporters' from?
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I share your frustration hubertgrove. To be fair to the BBC though, they do seem to be providing 'real' reports of the events too. Use the links to each sport on the main Olympics page and avoid the blogs to spare yourself future pain.
To be honest I get some strange enjoyment from reading this rubbish, although it is quickly replaced by disappointment that the BBC are choosing to spend money on sending these egomaniacs with no discernible journalistic talent all the way to Beijing to produce this kind of drivel.
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edinburghballgirl but if you live in the US (per your other post) and don't pay the licence fee, why are you concerned with how the BBC spends money?
Not saying I disagree with you, as I personally think they've sent way too many hangers-on, but just not sure why it's an issue for someone who lives in the US.
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I'd just like to say I found the style of reporting a welcome change from deadpan delivery of facts that has all the excitement and emotion of the "teleprinter football results" that used to bore me to tears at the end of "Grandstand" while I was waiting for Doctor Who to come on.
Ok MAYBE a couple of lines at the top pointing out that should we ever find ourselves in need of a rematch of Crecy and Agincourt we might possibly be in a spot of bother would have done the trick, but as someone who was bored with the whole olympics business ten minutes after a bunch of chinese secret policemen were allowed to tell our people what to do in the London Torch procession, I would like to thank Tom Fordyce for re-igniting my interest at least for a while.
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I'm currently working in the US (very bad timing given that I'm a huge fan of the Olympics and watching it here is less than satisfactory) I don't live here permanently. I have my home in the UK and pay my licence fee just like anyone else. Direct debit came out this week so I think I have the right to comment Vaughn_the_Prawn.
I'm a big fan of blogs. I'm really enjoying those by the athletes, would be keen to see the opinions of Olympic luminaries like Matthew Pinsent for example or even journalists that have covered the Olympics many times. What I do have a problem with are these people who seem to be in no way qualified to write this stuff and frankly it shows!
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What is your problem, people? The guy wrote a fairly entertaining precis of events that some of us who are actually interested in the sport, yet missed the coverage, found insightful and much, much better than the usual couple of paragraphs. His knowledge of the sport upon reading the entry is accurate and the blow by blow helped give a flavour of the event. If you wish to comment, try commenting on the event itself, not the guy doing a job communicating it in a fresh style.
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If you want the cut and dried version of events the BBC has kindly provided you with the news story you require here: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/archery/7552130.stm
As someone who has fired about 5 arrows in my entire life at a kid's camp and now only notices archery once every 4 years, I'd like to thank Tom and the BBC for drawing this event to my attention and also giving me a flavour of the colour and atmosphere at the Games. Screaming crowds, thunderstorms, tense archery, a bit of emotion. Sounds like a fantastic event to me!
It's a shame you can't please all the people all the time...
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Having (accidentally) attended the archery tournament at Athens, I can say it's a really entertaining sport.
If it weren't for an American family that I met at the tennis giving me a free ticket, I'd never have gone. I really didn't think that watching some people at one end of a field trying to hit a target down the other end would be at all interesting. How wrong I was.
Admittedly you don't see much of the arrows themselves other than the occasional glint as they fly; and the only reason you know anything's happening is because there's a twang noise near the people at one end that is followed a couple of seconds later by a thudding noise at the other end.
Yet the way they set the competition up, with archers going head to head, taking three shots at a time, with the announcer reading out the scores "Mr Li Xing Ning of China scores 8, 10 and 10 for a total of 28 points" really builds the tension.
It's only when you attend an actual archery tournament and see the length of the field that you appreciate how skilled they are. There are England footballers who can't even kick a ball 70 metres to a teammate without putting it in the crowd.
My favourite memory from watching it in Athens was when the announcer spoke to a hushed crowd ... "Ladies and gentlemen. This is not tennis or golf. You may clap and cheer the competitors". At which point everybody started to whoop and holler!!
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This is a blog, a column, a commentary, not a new post.
The news post (complete with result in the first sentance) can be found here -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/archery/7552130.stm
Personally I thought this a very good column, it described pretty well the event in an entertaining way. The only thing I would say is thatjustice was not oen to the amazing way in which the Chinese achers held their composure when the weather got worse with each round, this is where they pulled head of GB by maintaining their form when it matterred.
I feel it's just a shame that such a fine sport will likely now miss out on the publicity as the press on large will ignore it.
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just stepping aside from discussing the quality the blog for a moment(incidently i like that the blogs are used to give the emotive side of the reports, the tension in the crown, delight of the athlete etc)
how is it that williamson is picking up any praise? she was pretty poor in all 3 of GB rounds, although she did shoot brilliently at the end of the Japan contest,which has been pretty ignored by everybody because of her being her 5th Olympics and again by scoring a maximum with her final arrow is bound to cover up her low overall score against the French.
It is really odd how in this country we will jump on even the slightest mistakes in some sports yet we will defend others blindly in the face of poor performances
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I thought the performance of the GB Team in their last two rounds was very poor and in particular Williamson. None of them appeared to be enjoying themselves. The all appeared down in the mouth and their performance reflected that.
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Personally, I like it that the BBC have blogs to describe the atmosphere around the event, as well as the news report for the result itself. A pity some people appear to not be able to tell the difference between the two.
edinburghballgirl - that's very arrogant of you, thinking the entire BBC licence should be spent only on things you like. From my point of view, this blog is much more worth the money than a soap opera or home makeover show, but I'm aware there are people who also pay their licence fee who like that sort of thing.
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Ha ha well said fellow yellow #11
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BTW, whats with the slim shady peroxide Tom?
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Thanks Not logged in! I won't use this as a forum to discuss whether or not I'm arrogant. And of course I don't think that the licence fee should only be used on things I like...if I thought that I would have thrown away my tv and stopped paying many years ago. That's a ridiculous thing to say. I only brought up the licence fee because one other comment implied that I didn't have the right to enter this debate as I'm in the USA.
Being away from home I was hoping to rely on the BBC website to get the basic information and in some cases that's not happening. I think the BBC has some of their priorities wrong. I'd have no problem with all of these added extras like blogs if they were getting the basics right. That's all I'm saying.
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Um, edinburghballgirl I think you'll find post 3 (where you criticised the way the BBC spends money) came before post 4!
I don't know why everyone keeps criticising these blogs for not being factual event reports only, when there are separate articles which provide exactly that! I like the fact that we also have these blogs to provide more of the background flavour. If you just want the results/facts they are there! Good job BBC. No matter how you spend our money there will always be sour grapes from someone. As per many of the posts above, this is far better coverage than I've experienced elsewhere in the world.
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Great article - got the emotion and the reality of the event across. As an ex-archer I know what it is like to struggle to get the arrow anywhere near where you want it, and then to try to do so with thousands whooping and hollering... well. I couldn't even begin to want to try.
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Did you see the chinese crowd whistling when the opponent was taking the turn? Especially when they played against Korea? What a shame.
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Would people PLEASE stop talking about firing arrows? If you fire an arrow you get a little pile of ash. You shoot or loose arrows, you can only fire a gun.
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