DARRINGTON, Washington - The 2018 U.S. National Field Championships and World Archery Field Championships - U.S. team trials began today with competition at 24 targets of unmarked distances. Archers traversed crazy inclines in the beautiful wooded course at Darrington Archers. Unmarked means that in addition to judging the target face's size and angle of shooting, archers also must judge the distance they are shooting at for a truly great challenge.
Local youth archer Olivia Sekora commented after competition, "It was really tiring but fun. The best part was just spending time with my friends but judging distance and hiking the hills were the biggest challenges."
Barebow archer Jennifer Stoner agreed: "It was a tough course; the distances were far. But the best part was seeing everybody. Everyone on our target was from different parts of the country and it's always great to see your friends and socialize. It's so beautiful out there and we had a great day."
"You couldn't ask for a better day or a better group of people to shoot with," echoed Joe Margol.
Despite light rain and challenging distances and angles, the challenge of field archery draws archers from all backgrounds. Traditional longbow shooters joined the record shattering 160 participants as did historically target archers.
Matt Requa, a member of the Resident Athlete program, training for Tokyo 2020 commented that Field Nationals is good cross training and prep for target archery: "You're not shooting the same situation all day; you have different faces, angles and footing so it's a good challenge. I think it makes me a better target shooter by pushing myself out of my comfort zone and making me learn to be more confident in my shot."
Competition resumes tomorrow with scoring at 24 targets of marked distances. Then, for the top eight archers in each of the senior and junior categories, the World Archery Field Championships - U.S. team trials roll into Sunday's shooting to nominate a team to compete in Cortina, Italy later this year. Results from today's competition and target assignments for tomorrow can be found here. Updated results will be posted at the end of each day. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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