Las Vegas 2015 Indoor Archery Competition
Day 1 (Friday)
The Las Vegas Indoor Archery Competition is the largest indoor archery competition in the world. People from many different countries converge each year upon South Point Casino in Las Vegas for one of the most spectacular events in the sport of archery. Over 2,700 archers were pre-registered and a fair amount more could be seen at the registration booth leading up to the first arrows of the competition.
However - this means the competition is a very very long ordeal and somebody is going to be stuck with the earliest shooting time in the morning.
And, of course, that was us...
So, after arriving in Las Vegas yesterday (Thursday), we all set our alarms for before the desert sunrise in order to make sure we were up, fed, and ready for our first recurve round at 7:00am.
The Archers For Change crew met up with the other shooters from the Portland area and we talked, joked, and did everything we could to not become intimidated by the long row of targets sitting 18 meters away. Slowly the other early morning archers started to trickle in (most with bleary eyes and a cup of Seattle’s Best Coffee in their hands) and, before you knew it, the line ref called for the start of the 2015 Las Vegas shoot with four simple words ...
“Archers to the line!”
With calm demeanors which belied the rapid beating of many hearts, they waited for the whistle that singled the beginning of the tournament. Promises were made and prayers to many different god’s (or anything that would listen) were said as the row of competitors stared down the range to their targets.
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| Adam Parrott shooting for AFC at the Vegas Shoot 2015 |
Then, the whistle blew and hundreds of bows were raised as archers started to loose their first arrows. The “Vegas Round” consists of 10 ends of 3 arrows each for a maximum of 30 arrows. End after end, we would shoot our arrows and then walk down to the targets to score. Some ends were better than others. Some people did far better than expected ... others not so much. Such is the life of an archer at a competition.
Brandon Tenner, shooting for Active Heros/Carry The Fallen, is a Vegas veteran. He calmly proceeded through the first round like a well oiled machine. He sent arrow after arrow into the gold and, after the dust had settled, he had not only scored a new tournament personal best of 288/300 ... he also found himself tied in 2nd place! With two more rounds to be shot over the weekend, Brandon is in high hopes of placing near the top of the charts.
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| Brandon Tenner nailing Xs at the Vegas Shoot 2015 |
Adam Parrott, shooting for St. Mary’s Home For Boy’s, made a strong showing as well. Although this was his first large tournament and his first time shooting at Vegas, he didn’t let the competition affect him. Well ... maybe a little. Ok, so in reality it was incredibly intimidating and his heart was pumping out of his chest ... but now the first round is over and he can look forward to improving on his scores over the next two rounds on Saturday and Sunday. Adam shot a 260/300 (not to far below his average) and is expecting to do nothing but improve over the next few days ... as long as the stress of competition doesn’t get to him.
Good thing he has strong supporters in the other AFC shooters, Brandon Tenner and Chelsea Bliss, as well as the entire crew from his hometown of Portland.
And that really is one of the most amazing things about archery. In the end, your “competitors” are also your friends, supporters, mentors, and community. Every archer can only do the best that they can do. And every archer wants to see their friends shoot the best that they can.
The AFC shooters next shoot at 4:00pm on Saturday. You can watch their live scoring results at http://ianseo.net/details.php?told=989
If you haven’t pledged yet for one of our archers and their organization, please check out our main website at www.archersforchange.com or click on the pledge button below!
Thank you everyone for your support. Check in tomorrow for another update!
~ Adam Parrott and the AFC Team
