Archery: Arrows aimed at Athens bullseye

By EUGENE BINGHAM

For a sport that draws on the imagery of fantasy, few events match archery for its cut-throat intensity.

The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is responsible for a boom in interest in the sport, but in competition there is no room for romantic delusions. Archery is about mental toughness and technical proficiency, an event where millimetres count.

At the Olympic Games, organisers have made it even tougher. In days gone by, the individual event was something of a marathon, with shooters lining up for four days of competition, accumulating as many points as possible.

Now, it is a nerve-racking contest in which the strong are pitted against the weak, where opponents are given one chance of victory or elimination.

All competitors shoot a first round of 72 arrows to earn a ranking of one to 64. From there, a knock-out competition begins where No 1 is matched against No 64, No 2 against No 63, and so on.

Each archer shoots six ends of three arrows at a time, with a maximum of 40 seconds allowed per arrow.

Ken Uprichard knows about the pressure of the Olympics. At Sydney in 2000, the New Zealand shooter "crashed and burned", knocked out in the first matchplay round.

Four years later, Uprichard is the sole New Zealand archery representative. In his laconic way, he acknowledges that Sydney was a tough introduction to Olympic competition.

"But I got over it and moved on." At 24, he's not one for dwelling on the past.

In keeping with this trait, his description of how he became an archer is brief:

"Aw, it was about 10 years ago. I just had a go and loved it. Shot my first tournament, came third and got hooked.

"I like individual sports - you don't have to rely on everyone else to pull finger."

Tennis, soccer and hockey were dropped in favour of his new sport.

He omits to mention that he was so talented as a teenager that he was allowed to move up to compete against men many years his senior, or that his talent was spotted early on by New Zealand's most famous archer, Neroli Fairhall.

Fairhall, a life member and vice-president of Uprichard's Christchurch Archery Club, says he had good hand-eye co-ordination from the moment he fired his first arrow. And there was something else.

Good archers, Fairhall explains, have a certain sense about the bow.

"It's just a feeling - you know you might be able to do quite well at it from the first moment."

Fairhall had that feeling, and she recognised it in Uprichard.

Fairhall, gold medallist at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games in 1982, represented New Zealand at the Los Angeles Olympics. She was selected to go to Moscow, but thanks to international politics, she missed her chance.

"I would like to have gone to a second one because the first one is overwhelming," says Fairhall. "Ken, of course, has got that first one under his belt."

Since Sydney, Uprichard has also racked up international experience at two world championships and at Oceania events. He set a New Zealand record this year at the Australian championships, scoring 113 from 120 in open matchplay.

All of this has given him the confidence to aim for a top 16 finish.

He has experience of Athens, competing last year in a pre-Olympic tournament there, finishing in the top half of the field.

It was a good opportunity to soak up the history of the venue. Archery will be one of the events that the Greeks will, quite rightly, use to showcase their historical links with the Games.

The competition is at the marble Panathinaiko Stadium, home of the first modern Olympics in 1896, and site of an ancient stadium dating back to 329BC. On top of that, Greek mythology is littered with references to archery - Olympian gods Artemis and Apollo and hero Hercules were all handy with a bow.

For Uprichard to make it to the top 16, he will have to avoid any distractions that 3000 years of Greek history can cause.

He will also have to cope with the afternoon Mediterranean winds that have breezed into Athens every summer's afternoon for longer than that.

Most athletes will welcome the cooling effects of the wind, but for archers, it can cause havoc, diverting the course of arrows fired from 70m away at a bullseye 12cm in diameter.

Uprichard, mind, is relaxed, having been brought up to deal with the northwesters that hit Christchurch. "So hopefully, the wind might be something to my advantage."

Ken Uprichard

Born: May 13, 1980, Christchurch

Job: Lab technician

Achievements:

2000 Sydney Olympics, 56th place

2004 Australian National Champs, 5th place in open matchplay (NZ record of 113/120)