2008 Olympics Updates

It’s been my first Olympics and while I’m disappointed not to get a medal, it’s been a fine line all the way.

Let me start by putting straight what I said after I was knocked out of the archery in the last 16 earlier today.

I was cheesed off with my performance and then went straight into interviews. Sometimes you say stuff in the heat of the moment which you otherwise wouldn’t.

I always said I wanted to compete in the Olympics and finish with a smile on my face and I didn’t do that, but now I’ve been to the gym for an hour, I’ve had time to reflect a bit more.

Our coach Peter Suk has had a lot of time for me and a lot of belief in my ability, although sometimes I want him to be a bit more enthusiastic about me.

But I can’t complain about the support he has given us - and it’s me standing on the line shooting the arrows. We’ll have a review in the weeks after the Olympics, but this has been one huge learning curve for us all.

There’s been a few ups and downs for me personally from the opening qualifying for the team event to beating the Athens Olympic champion in the individual event.

I started off well in the team competition last weekend but one bad dozen on the fourth end left me in 21st place, but it was my best score of the season so far so I was happy with my performance.

There was a tricky crosswind which was difficult to read making things even harder, but to give you some idea of the level of competition, my score was one point better than I shot in my last World Cup meet in France when I placed 12th.

A day of chilling out followed before the elimination rounds started and we lost 214-210 to China.

It was a disappointing finish, but the team has not shot together too many times this year and after a good year last year, there was a lot of expectation on us.

It was a good opportunity for us but it’s a fine line between hitting the gold and slipping into the red.

I had a strange interlude when I went down to cheer on the British women in the individual event. Charlotte Burgess and Naomi Folkard met in the round of 32 and an extra coach was needed to offer moral support and sort out their arrows.

I was asked to help Charlotte out and although I’ve never done anything like it before, I did so.

Charlotte didn’t shoot that well, but it was up to me to try and lift her spirits, as Naomi started to pull away.

Before the last end I just told her to shoot like they were the last arrows she was ever going to shoot in her life - it was a great privilege to be in that position and good experience.

It was then time to focus on my individual event on Wednesday - I only scored 103, but beat Italy’s Mauro Nespoli in the first elimination round.

My score was not as good as team-mates Larry Godfrey and Simon Terry, but they both went out.

I wanted to do better in the next round, not just for myself, but for the whole team.

I faced the reigning Olympic champion Marco Galliazo, also from Italy in the next round and I put in a great performance, but I still needed a 10 from my final arrow to progress.

The adrenaline was really pumping and I just told myself that there was nowhere else the arrow was going, but in the centre gold.

I knew pretty much as soon as it left the bow that it was on target, but it was still a relief to see it go in and I won 110-109.

It was a brilliant feeling to beat the Italian and he told me that I had better go on and win the tournament now.

But then the day was over and I had a day off before going back for the last 16 round.

I was getting into a good rhythm on the Wednesday and I reckon I would have gone much further if the competition had continued.

That’s not the way it works though and I had to come back today where I lost my first match against a Cuban 108-104.

It was hugely disappointing, but you win some and you lose some and I’m 95% sure I’ll be back for London 2012.

First up though is to enjoy the rest of the Olympics, then it’s home for a review with the archery team and then I plan to take a bit of break from the recurve and go back to the field archery and take part in the World Games next year.

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks, though, to let you know about the rest of my Olympics experience and more on the future.

Alan Wills was talking to BBC Sport’s Peter Scrivener.

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.

Britain’s archers have an excellent chance of winning individual and team medals, but the South Koreans will be the ones to beat in Beijing when the competition gets underway on Saturday.

Archery accounted for three of the nine gold medals South Korea won in Athens four years ago, and they have a deep pool of talented archers who are all more than capable of winning medals.

Athens gold medalist Park Sung-hyun and 12-arrow world record holder Yoon Ok-hee will lead the South Korean women’s squad, while the men’s team will include Im Dong-hyun, the reigning world champion.

South Korea have won 14 of the 22 archery Olympic golds on offer since the 1984 Los Angeles Games, with the women taking 11 and men winning three teams titles.

The women are phenomenal - winning the individual gold at every Olympics since ‘84, and every team title since the Seoul Games in ‘88.

The men are becoming increasingly dominant themselves, having won the team titles in Sydney 2000 and Athens four years ago, though no South Korean has won the men’s individual gold.

That said, Im Dong-Hyun is expected to put an end to that, as favourite for the men’s gold in Beijing.

So why are the South Koreans so good?

Probably because of extensive preparation, coupled with state-of-the-art training techniques.

Training is only part of the equation though and some of the Korean archers believe they have physiological, mental and spiritual traits that set them apart from the rest.

Yoon Ok-hee recently told an interviewer she believed that Korean women were dextrous due to heightened sensitivity in their fingers, making them more adept at “feel” sports such as archery.

That theory may also go some way to explaining why South Korea continues to produce an abundance of top-class women golfers.

Oh, and it is not just the archers that are world class - the coaches aren’t bad either!

Indeed, Britain hired a world class Korean coach three years ago, and there is no doubting that Peter Suk, as the national Head Coach, has had a massive impact.

Just ask the six British archers preparing to take part in the Olympics.

So yes, South Korea will dominate the Olympic archery tournament, of that you can be sure.

But thanks to our own South Korean influence, British archers will be there or thereabouts when the competition gets down to its final stages.

Oh, and the South Koreans are not invincible - Britain has beaten them in team competitions this year. Now let’s hope they do it when it really matters, in Beijing!

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.

Over two days next week (18 and 19 June), the top eight British recurve archers will do battle for six places in the Olympic team.

Alan Wills, Larry Godfrey, Simon Terry and Tom Barber are chasing three places in the men’s tournament at Beijing, while Alison Williamson, Naomi Folkard, Charlotte Burgess and Emma Downie face the same equation in the women’s event.

If you take into account that, for archers, representing your country at the Olympic Games is the ultimate in achievement, then you won’t just be able to feel the tension at Lilleshall next week, you’ll probably be able to bounce it up and down.

Think penalty shoot-out in a World Cup semi-final, where so much is at stake, then you might just get an idea of how much this Olympic shoot-off means to the eight archers involved.

What will happen is that the top two in each category will qualify automatically, come what may.

The third and final placing will be at the discretion of Team GB’s head coach Peter Suk, who I can assure you will make an honest selection based on what he considers to be in the best interests of the team.

As is always the case in sport, there will be winners who are ecstatic, and a loser who will be extremely disappointed.

Perhaps the biggest loser so far in the selection process - and next week’s shoot-off will be the third and final one - has been Michael Peart.

I really like Michael - he’s a thoroughly nice bloke, and also a very good archer who has competed at the highest level.

Like everyone else, taking part at the Olympics has been his childhood dream, and last week he was one of six men to compete to go through to the final round.

He finished fourth, behind Wills, Terry and Godfrey, but with Suk having the final say on the fourth qualifier, he eventually opted for Barber.

It was a close call, and I do not think for one second that Suk made the decision lightly, but I guess that’s what people in his position are paid to do, however hard it sometimes is.

I am sure I’m not the only one that really felt for Michael, but at the same time, Tom is a fantastic young talent - he’s still only 16, and it will not be long before he is an international regular.

And even if he misses out this time, I have little doubt that he will be a contender for London 2012.

Once the Olympic squad is finalised, it will be all systems go, and the interest from the media will intensify.

As a minority sport that often struggles for mainstream coverage, this will be most welcome, especially as there are some really good stories to tell - and potential GB medal winners!

It is also a terrific showcase for archery, and if Athens is anything to go by, then we can look forward to another big recruitment surge at clubs throughout the country.

Indeed it was watching the Athens Olympics on television, and following the progress of Godfrey to fourth place in the men’s individual tournament, that inspired Mick Beard to take up archery.

Four years on and Mick is now a regular member of the GB Paralympic squad, and in my next blog I should be able to confirm that Mick will be part of an 11-strong squad that will be going to the Paralympics.

There really are some inspirational stories in the British Paralympic team, which I will tell you about in a later blog, and my respect for them all has no limits.

But now I’m heading up to Lilleshall to watch the Olympic shoot-off. I’ll keep you posted!