- 15 Aug 08, 09:18 AM
Olympic Green Archery Field
A bit like the sailors at currently windless Qingdao, Britain's medal tally has hit the doldrums over the last couple of days.
There was concern this first week was going to be slow, and to be honest, so it has proved.
Apart from the swimmers, who've had a great Olympics, and the cycling team who will undoubtedly be Britain's biggest providers, there's been disappointment elsewhere.
Nothing out of judo, diving, badminton, tennis, shooting - and now archery, where I've been spending my time over the last few days.
Archery had a target of two medals, and managed only a 4th place in the women's team event.
Let's add some context to that.
Last year was a particularly good one for the British archers, winning three medals at the World Championships, but it's here in Beijing where it really counts, where the fruits of their labours, and the £2.8m investment the sport's had in the past four years should be reaped.
What's gone wrong?
Alan Wills offered me an insight straight after bowing out in the last 16 this morning.
He told me the head coach, Peter Suk, wasn't letting him "be himself" out on the target field.
He wanted to feel more aggression, but felt that his personality was being subdued, because Suk wanted a calmer approach.
Team-mate Simon Terry mentioned "issues around the team" the other day, and clearly that's what he was alluding to.
I'm left to question why wasn't this resolved before the games?
If Wills wasn't getting what he personally needed, then why?
After all he's the bloke out there drawing the bow.
Whether this is a management or a communication issue, I don't know, but the net result is a flat team, flat performances and a zero in the medals column.
Team leader, Hilda Gibson, said that there'd be a chance to get all this out into the open at a big de-brief post games.
Fine, but forgive me, too late for Terry, who said he'd not got his head around the one-on-one contests yet, or Naomi Folkard who let nervousness get in the way of her talent.
If ever a sport needed a good psychologist to give them strategies for dealing with those things, it's archery.
Like target shooting, it's a sport you play as much against yourself as the person standing next to you.
The Grand National Archery Society has some thinking to do, as do the other sports who've missed their medal targets here.
UK Sport has a much publicised "no compromise" policy when it comes to funding sport.
Archery will be among those nervously awaiting the outcome of the divvy-up of cash for London 2012.
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Well said Gordon! It is indeed a sport where you are basically in competition against yourself and indeed I think that there were some coaching issues out in Beijing whether it was Suk's coaching style or something else I don't know as I wasn't there but it was clear from the whole teams performance that something was getting to them as even Alison was performing well under par (scuse the term) Maybe it was the lack of crowd control at the stadium....British archers are not use to that sort of poor behaviour as any FITA or GNAS judge would have had severe words with anyone making those kinds of distracting noises on purpose and can on occasions halt the competition untill relative peace can be restored. Anyway I just really hope that the big wigs in charge of finance get out of this poor habit of piling on the pressure to do well on the olympians and let them get on with the jobs at hand....I'm sure the USA and CHINA don't have the same penny pinching mentality to sport as we do hence why they win so very many more medals than we do.
So finally let's encourage the Paralympic archery team to bring us back some medals as don't forget they still have their competition to come! YAAY!!
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Terrible set of results for Team GB's archers. I would have thought that it would have been a sport we could target (excuse the pun) for success in 2012 - after all how hard is it to visit a school, set up a couple of targets and let the kids have a go?
Also the comments suggest that the archery team aren't following the example of the cycling mob - everything centres around the athlete.
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Back when I was shooting, most archers would have been driven mad by the terrible deafening interludes of Muzak that started up as soon as they'd shot. One of the more annoying features about this year's games I think.
There is something wrong in the archery world, and it's mainly about lack of access to facilities. that's not the fault of the sport, it's the suspicion that Local Authorities have about allowing a 'shooting' event.
I remember some years back when a London local councilor on a recreation committee looked at a application from an archery club to continue using local grounds. Her suggestion was that she didn't see why they shouldn't switch over to arrows with the little rubber suckers on the end ;)
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So a particular sport doesn't do as well as someone might have expected ? the answer , give them less funding ? that makes real sense , they don't get enough now! Shooters who represent their country in the domestic home internationals get a funding of £150 , thats to buy their uniform , clothing , hotels , Flights , the whole damn thing and yet when we do well they all come out of the woodwork to claim the victory for themselves , these people should be ashamed to even think of reducing funding .The money wasted for the shooting venue for 2012 is a disgrace £20 mill. for a venue that will cost another £8 mill. to demolish , so much for "a legacy for sport "
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