Program in Montevarchi

Arrival of teams

Accreditation untill 19:30 hrs

Unofficial practice 14:00 - 18:00 hrs

Impression of the day:

We are in Italy to report about the European Championships 2011. Well, we... Silvia has been selected for the Dutch para-archery team and she just came back from Stoke. Reinier is the Team Captain, so our team in Italy consists of one men, Gerard. And with the help of the home team we will try to give the best impression of the Championships as possible. Today was the unofficial practice in the Stadium of Montevarchi. We met with the archers from Norway who were early and just about to leave when we showed up, much like the Belgians. The team from Lithuania was frantically practicing the whole session. Heads off to them, since it was quite hot. After the Worlds in Hungary nothing can ever be described as hot, so, it was a warm and humid day. The Dutch team showed up, the Germans and part of the Swedish team. And not a single Italian, which surprised me quite a bit. Later today I understood the Italians were having a private unofficial training at the grounds of Arcieri del Valdarno. That explained their absence in the stadium.

The judges checked the course today and they ran into a problem. The Italian team is sleeping right next to the field, in the accommodation at "La Forra". And they weren't able to set the distances for part of the course since the whole Italian team is cruising that part of the course on their way to their rooms. So, the Italians can pretty much roll out of their beds on Tuesday morning, pick up their bow and be ready to shoot. The other teams are housed in seven different hotels, and will be driven by busses to the field (quite a windy route up the mountain at Montegonzi and then another windy road to the field, and have to walk about 250 meters to get to the practice field. I checked the place out yesterday and, although it is about 6 kilometers (as the crow flies) from our hotel, it took me a good half hour to get up there. The road is small and if traffic is coming down the mountain, you have a problem since there are not a lot of places on that road where you can pass each other.

The targets used here at the courses are a kind of braided straw and the compound archers have a hard time to retrieve their arrows from it. They come in different sizes, so that is not a big help when ranging the targets. I don't know if the thickness of the braided parts comes in different sizes as well. If that is not the case, counting the number of braids is a big help with estimating the size (60 or 80 cm) of the target face.