One Arrow One Life
One of the great things in modern archery is the head to head. Two archers shooting against each other. Three arrow ends, highest score takes 2 points, draw 1 point, 0 if you lose. First to 6 points wins. Its AWESOME but there is something even better. The One Arrow Shoot-off.
This is sudden death. Everything to this stage has been tied up. A winner needs to be found and one arrow closest the centre is the way*. At the Paris Olympics, the Gents Gold medal was decided by one arrow shoot-off after the previous 15 arrows could not separate Kim Woojin and Brady Ellison**. The gold was decided by exactly 4mm of a difference. And while that was fantastic .. we've gone one better (admittedly not for an Olympic medal ;o)
At our American round, shot on Sunday, the 6th of July we found ourselves in a pickle. Our first place gents compounder podium position had two occupants. GA compounder Ravi and EK compounder James. 90 arrows had been shot and both archers had the same number of 9's, the same number of 7's and both even had a single 5! Separating these two was not going to be easy. But just as the movie Highlander said in its tag line .. "There can be only one!"
Solution = One Arrow Shoot-off.
As there had been a bit of a break from the end of competition to realisation we had a tie, the archers were allowed a practice. It was then announced a one arrow tie breaker was going to be shot. You could have heard a mouse sneeze in the silence. Complete respect for the archers concentration.
Whistle blown .. and it was ON! The arrows were in the air mibi 5 seconds apart and it was obvious from the waiting line that it was close .. very close. Even with a spotting scope .. Jeez that's close! At first look it looked like James had the edge .. but a visual check wasn't going to be accurate enough. A measure was called for and Euan had sensibly brought something to do the measuring. The difference .. 2mm. Gold To James.
The closeness of this was insane (literally half the width of an Easton x10) and kudos to both archers for shooting their shot. No-one "lost" this .. everyone won witnessing the wafer thin separation between the two archers who had been so close over 90 arrows. Even our Editor tipped his hat .. and he's not a fan of compound. A rare sign of respect indeed!
Take a bow guys, you earned it.
* * *
* This is the way!
** Watch the Gents Olympic Gold being decided by one arrow shoot-off here
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Tell us what you really think, Steve ... I think one-arrow shoot-offs are ridiculous. They do not determine which archer is better, they merely decide a winner. Why not just flip a coin?
The distribution of arrows in target center is largely governed by natural variation. Being able to group around the center is the mark of an elite archer. But ... closest to the center? Bollocks! Imagine a professional golf match being decided by which golfer's tee shot was closest to the hole on a Par 3 hole. Announce that at a tournament and there would be a riot. Why? Because we have all seen a golfer farther way from the hole make his putt while the golfer closer to the hole misses his. Playing the hole out requires a display a range of his talent not just whether one tee shot was luckier than the other.
And, yeah, I am opinionated. At least no trees were harmed in the "printing" of this diatribe, only a few electrons were discomfited.
I agree to an extent that there isn't a huge difference between shooting a1 arrow shoot off and flipping a coin. Though you could argue that the single arrow shoot off rewards the archer that can stay the calmest under pressure and can stay focused and execute the shot. similar to the argument that the 11 use recently in the worlds rewards the archer that is the most consistent, for compound anyway.
Plus from a spectator aspect the single arrow shoot off is the best option when one winner is required.