We have been to quite a few championships, but these ones are in more than one way quite out of the ordinary. For instance archers never came up to us before complaining about the way things are organized around the championships. Despite the fact that numerous volunteers are rushing their tails off, quite a few things get overseen here in Wales. Things like providing shelter for 96 archers that arrived here today for the eighth and quarter finals whilst a severe weather warning for this Friday has been out since Tuesday. In previous championships sometimes the Team Captains picked up some of the issues that needed last minute attention, but never the archers themselves. Now they do. They even started rebelling today and squatted a building that seemed empty but was actually vacated and needed for the anti-doping procedure today. They thought it was a great place to assemble their bows instead.

We met Skip Trafford today and he was rather disappointed. He was involved in a shoot off yesterday with Antonio Bianchini, actually winning that shoot off. He was all chuffed up about making it to the eighth final, only to find out at night that his qualification score over two days was one point less than Bianchini's score. That placed him 17th with just one point short for a place in the next round. We wonder who ordered that shoot off, and hope someone is offering Skip a decent present during the prize giving ceremony to make up for that mistake.

Up until now we were never in a tournament where the rules have been bend in such a way that we got a feeling the rulebook was tossed out of the window. The rulebook foresees in the case of the problems of day one, an unfinished course. It does not say anything however about a second qualification day at only 12 targets, and the chapter about skipping the quarter finals and immediately making a cut at the first four archers after the eighth finals is new to us as well. Presenting team medals without a team final is another interesting twist. Admitted, the circumstances regarding the weather are extraordinary indeed, but FITA is making some unexpected shortcuts at these World Championships Field Archery. In any case, the Team Captains seem not be bothered by it and we had a quick day today.

What is sad for the locals is that none of the archers from Great Britain made it to the senior finals. Chris White had the best chance today reaching the finals. He made it to the shoot off for place 4 in the Mens Compound Division; a 60 meter shot against Niels Baldur. Chris brought two releases to these championships: one that is very sensitive and one that needs a bit more pressure to release. He choose the very sensitive one, tied with the first arrow (both archers shooting a six), but having a premature release with the second arrow shooting a four.

We are looking forward to the finals, and offered a wee dram of whisky to persuade the weather gods to give us a break. One day. How much do we actually ask for?