2008 Olympics Updates

It has been a fantastically successful Olympics for Team GB, and as I’ve watched the cyclists and the sailors enjoying the limelight, I suppose I cannot help reflect on the disappointment that GB’s six archers will be returning home empty-handed.

I think the reason Archery GB has been so flat is that expectations were so high, and it is to the credit of our archers that that was so. Alison Williamson, Alan Wills et al have all performed so well on the international stage over the past four years that observers such as myself started to become too confident.

It all started with a bronze for Alison at Athens in 2004, and a fourth place finish for Larry Godfrey. Since then, they have won a number of medals at various international competitions, ranging from world and European championships, to World Cup tournaments. And not for nothing are our women’s team ranked second in the world, and the men fifth.

Last year, British archers won a silver medal and two bronze at the World Championships in Leipzig, but alas, it wasn’t the Olympic Games, and therefore that fantastic achievement went relatively unreported. Win a medal at the Olympics and suddenly a cascade of journalists are battering the door down for interviews, and for a minority sport like archery, publicity of that kind is a wonderful chance to further raise the profile of the sport.

But the Olympic Games is the gauge by which the success of the sport is measured, and the archers missed their opportunity - though the trio of Alison, Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess provided tremendous theatre in the team tournament when they came so agonisingly close to a medal on the first Sunday. After that, we faded from the scene, and that was a disappointment, of course.

So where do we go from here? Well, as I said, British archery has had a tremendous three years, and looking ahead, there are a good crop of youngsters waiting to break through, and snapping at the heels of the seniors in the countdown to London 2012.

First things first, though, and we will all be cheering on our Paralympic archers in Beijing, and while I should learn the lesson of being too optimistic, I cannot help myself by reporting that we have a great squad and every chance of winning medals.

In the first week of September, the World Field Archery Championship takes place at Llwynypia, near Cardiff, with hundreds of archers from all over the world descending on South Wales for a week long tournament.

We also have one of our compound archers - Nichola Simpson - taking part in the Fita World Cup Grand Final in Lausanne in October, which everyone is looking forward to. It is the third year running (and the World Cup only began in 2006) that a GB archer has made it to the Grand Final (Alan Wills won a bronze medal last year, Alison Williamson finished fourth the year before).

After that, there will be a review of the Olympic experience in October, with officials, coaches and, of course, the archers themselves, all contributing to a far-reaching assessment and analysis of the good and the bad of Beijing. I have little doubt there will be plenty of straight-talking, but constructive, rather than destructive.

Oh, and there is the question of funding. It is extremely premature to speculate one way or t’other about this, because the simple fact is that nobody knows at this stage - though I accept that the lack of medal success makes it an inevitable question.

I don’t know the politics of funding, but what I do know is that the setting up of a Performance Unit by Archery GB three years ago, and the consistently improving performances at international level since Athens four years ago, suggests that the long term strategy is on the right lines.

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.

Watching sport should be fun. And usually it is. Unless you’re watching an event where you have a vested interest.

Like Sunday’s women’s archery team tournament at the Olympics in Beijing.

As the media adviser to Archery GB, I know Alison Williamson, Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess, and have a great deal of time and respect for all three of them.

So obviously I was willing them to win a medal. Gold was a tall order - the Koreans are quite simply phenomenal, but silver was a possibility; bronze I’d have settled for.

Alas, they left empty handed, after defeats to China in the semi-finals, and then France in the bronze medal shoot-off. I was mortified.

But if I was disappointed, then how must Alison, Naomi and Charlotte have felt? The tears said it all.

I think what made this even more disappointing is that I know that Alison, Naomi and Charlotte justify their world ranking of number two, and if I am totally honest I suppose my expectations were high.

But that reflects the faith I have in all three of them. Oh, and if I’m brutally honest, I was also thinking of the great publicity and profile for archery that winning a medal would bring!

That said, it was wonderful to see archer featuring on live television. And though the result wasn’t what we wanted, it was certainly a gripping watch, when I could bear to look!

But I am an eternal optimist, and the three Brits will bounce back. Indeed, sometimes a kick in the proverbial teeth can make you more resolute, and I have no doubt that they will turn up for the individual tournament in the week more determined than ever.

Monday is the men’s team tournament.

Alan Wills, Simon Terry and Larry Godfrey won silver at the World Championships last year, and they have the ability individually and collectively make up for Sunday’s disappointment.

I’ll be a cheerleader in chief once again. But will I able to cope with the tension?

This weekend, Britain’s Olympic archers will be heading off to Macau to begin final preparations for Beijing.

Alan Wills, Larry Godfrey, Simon Terry, Alison Williamson, Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess will be carrying British hopes of medals in this competition, and I genuinely believe they have prospects, both in the individual events, and certainly in the team tournaments.

They, and the 12 Paralympians who will be heading off later in August, were given a hearty send-off last weekend, with a big barbeque reception, and it was hard not to be excited on their behalf.

Just by qualifying to take part, they have achieved what most of us can only ever dream of.

It was a pleasant evening, enjoyed by all, with the archers looking relaxed and confident, while partners, parents and other family members looked on with great pride.

And isn’t it always interesting what you find out about people and their families at these kinds of events? You know the sort of thing I mean - talents that we never knew existed. On this occasion, credit must go to head coach Peter Suk and his wife, who proved themselves a musical couple of some note.

Peter Suk has done an outstanding job in the past three years and his impact is already making its mark in the countdown to the London 2012 Olympics, with the names Emma Downie and Tom Barber springing immediately to mind.

Both of them are reserves for this Olympics, but both have enormous potential, and - all things being equal - will be starting to make their impact felt over the next few years on the international stage, which they have already trodden with distinction.

Emma only took up archery six years ago, and after her raw and natural talent was spotted early on, Peter Suk has spent much time helping her continual development.

He has also invested much time and effort into the development of Tom, who’s just 16, but a young man who can really make his mark over the next few years.

They are two to look out for in the longer term, but for now the attention is on the immediate future, and Beijing next month.

Nobody underestimates the task at hand, and the competition will be intense - but our archers are well prepared, determined, and confident in their own form and ability.

And hopefully that will be the cue for another pleasant barbeque on the terrace at Lilleshall, this time to raise a glass in celebration.

So we now know the identity of the six archers who will be flying the flag for Britain at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

In case you missed it, the six are: Simon Terry, Alan Wills and Larry Godfrey in the men’s tournament, and Alison Williamson, Charlotte Burgess and Naomi Folkard in the women’s.

To a certain extent, there was a sense of inevitablity about it all. With every respect to the other hopefuls, I for one never felt that the list would be anything other than the six names now on it.

But try telling the archers it was a forgone conclusion.

It was not just about the qualifying process, it was about consistency over a long period, and all six Beijing-bound archers have been the mainstay of Team GB for the past couple of years.

Once the six Olympic archers had been confirmed, there was no punching the air, screaming with relief or falling to the floor in emotion. But hey, our archers are made of much more sturdier stuff!

Mind you, they needed to be - Lilleshall over two days last week was wet, and then windy.
Afterwards, the overriding sense was of relief that the process was over, though of course they were each absolutely thrilled to have made the team.

Pride of place must go to Alison Williamson. Most of us mere mortals dream of taking part in just one Olympic Games, so to qualify for a fifth is a fantastic achievement.

Alison was a bronze-medal winner in Athens, and while some people could have rested on their laurels, she told me her motivation for Beijing is that she is consistently setting herself new standards and targets. That is why she is still competing at the top level of international sport after 18 years.

Her first Olympics was at Barcelona in 1992 - the year that Simon Terry won two bronze medals as a fresh-faced 18 year old. It has been well documented that he then drifted away from the sport, only to dust his bow and arrows down four years ago, to see if he still had it in him. Well, didn’t he just.

The natural aptitude had clearly never deserted him, but there was plenty of fine-tuning to be done if he wanted to compete again at the top level. To his credit, he’s worked his proverbials off since he realised that reaching the Promised Land was not just a daydream - and qualifying for a second Olympics 16 years after his first is some achievement.

So the inevitable question, which I have been asked countlessly this week, is can Britain win any medals? And the answer is simple: yes we can.

All six British archers going to Beijing are genuinely good enough to be competitive in the individual tournaments.

Of the men, Simon’s already been there and done it, and was fourth at last year’s World Championships; Larry came fourth in Athens, so knows what it takes at that level, while Alan proved his mettle with bronze at the World Championships last year, and at the World Cup Grand Final.

In the women’s event, Alison is arguably the most experienced archer in the competition, Charlotte is more than capable of holding her own, and keep an eye on Naomi, who is an outstanding archer with enormous talent, and always performs consistently.

This is Naomi’s second Olympics, so she knows what to expect, and I would not be in the least surprised if she progressed, in her own quiet way, through to the latter stages of the tournament at least.

But, without wanting to put any undue pressure of expectation on our archers, it is in the two team events that they really have a chance.

The three lads, and the three ladies are not just consitent performers in international team competitions over the past couple of years, but very successful too. Both teams have a great bond and team spirit, and if all falls into place, they will be there or thereabouts for sure.

And before I sign off, a special mention for the two archers who missed out in the final qualifying tournament. Tom Barber is just 16, and already a regular member of the international squad, and if he were to be called up he would let no one down. He is an extremely level-headed young man, and he has a great future ahead of him as an international archer.

So does Emma Downie. She only took up the sport six years ago, and has done amazingly well to get so far so quickly, which says much about her attitude, and the coaching of GB head coach Peter Suk over the past couple of years.

So it’s now countdown Beijing. This week the archers are in Boe, France, for the fourth and final leg of the FITA World Cup tournament.

None of our recurves are likely to feature in the Grand Final, but with the Olympics beckoning, this is a great chance to start putting the final touches to their preparations.

On a personal note, I congratulate all six of the archers who have made it to the Olympics. A fantastic effort by all of them.