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2003 Great Outdoor Games featured toughest competition yetPatrick Durkin — Aug. 4, 2003 In June as Darren Collins of Galena, Kansas, prepared for the archery tournament at the 2003 ESPN Great Outdoor Games in Reno, Nev., he studied the 16-archer field that qualified for the July event and knew he would be facing tough competition.
The names he saw and the reports he heard told him he must thoroughly prepare his equipment and then practice intensely to have a chance of winning his first gold medal at the Games. Collins finished fifth at the first Great Outdoor Games in 2000 and won the bronze medal at the 2002 Games, both held in Lake Placid, N.Y. He didn’t practice much to prepare for those tournaments, and still fared decently. But he knew that approach wouldn’t cut it in 2003. Collins said he needed to improve his already fast release and become more proficient on the Bermuda Triangle, the tournament’s moving target. The archery competition at the ESPN Great Outdoor Games is sponsored by ArrowSport, the Archery Trade Association’s new foundation dedicated to the promotion of archery. This high-speed, head-to-head, single-elimination tournament features moving and stationary targets, most of which shatter on impact. ESPN and ArrowSport have worked together the past three years to make the competition more exciting to watch and easier to follow on TV. With the event settling into a more consistent format the past two years, the archers also learned how to better prepare for the competition.Serious PreparationWhen Collins showed up for the Great Outdoor Games to practice July 10, he was glad he had made serious preparations. “Originally, when ESPN started this tournament, everyone considered it a novelty shoot,” Collins said. “This year, starting back in winter and spring at the qualifying events, it was obvious many shooters were taking it seriously and practicing for it. They’re now building their bows just for this tournament, and they have multiple sights set up for the moving targets. When I got to Reno, I looked around and saw that new attitude everywhere. A lot of preparation went into it this year. It wasn’t just me. We had a very tough field. The ESPN tournament has become much more of a discipline of archery.” Jay Barrs, ArrowSport’s director of promotions, noticed the difference, too. “In years past, there were probably only a handful of shooters who were confident they could come in here and compete for the gold medal,” Barrs said. “Some of those top guys arrived this year, looked around, and realized they were in for a fight. “We also had some new blood this year that got everyone’s attention and gave the top dogs a push,” Barrs continued. “These are people who have excelled in other formats, heard about the Great Outdoor Games, and decided to give it a try. As a result, we had new shooters like Ginger Hopwood (North Carolina), Don Bishop (North Carolina), Gerald Decker (Pennsylvania) and Mark Herring (Ohio) who decided they like this competition. They put in a lot of time preparing for it. As they get some of this national TV experience under their belt, they’ll only get better and make this even more competitive. It’s not easy to come in here the first year and handle our cheering crowds and the pressure of being televised by ESPN.” Even though the same three archers who captured the gold, medal and bronze medals in 2002 shared the awards podium again in 2003, the order was reversed this year, with Collins on top with his gold medal. Randy Ulmer of Cave Creek, Ariz., repeated as the silver medalist and Randy Hendrix of Clemmons, N.C., captured the bronze after winning gold in 2001 and 2002. Collins
defeated Hendrix, 42-39, in the semi-final round to advance to the
gold-medal round. He then defeated Ulmer, 33-30, consigning Ulmer to his
second consecutive silver medal. Jackie Caudle of Gadsden, Ala., the 2000
gold medalist, finished fourth; and Rod White, a 1996 Olympic team gold
medalist, finished fifth. The ‘New’ GameBecause Collins finished third in 2002, he
automatically qualified with Hendrix and Ulmer for this year’s Games.
But when ArrowSport held its first of three “Eliminator” qualifying
round in February 2003 in Las Vegas, Collins soon learned his fellow
archers weren’t conceding this year’s Games to him, Hendrix or Ulmer.
Plus, the tournament itself had a new wrinkle: the “Speed Challenge”
station, in which archers race to shoot four 3-inch targets at 25 yards. During the Vegas qualifier, Keith Brown of
North Carolina locked up his return to the Great Outdoor Games by taking
first place and running the Speed Challenge in 24.51 seconds. Taking
second was another Great Outdoor Games veteran, Mike Slinkard of Oregon,
who shot the Challenge in 26 seconds. Caudle took third at Las Vegas, and
shot the Challenge in 29.36 seconds. If that wasn’t enough to get
everyone’s attention, subsequent qualifying tournaments at Oak Ridge,
Tenn., in April and McKean, Pa., in June produced even faster times and
some new faces. Bishop won the Tennessee qualifier and shot the Speed
Challenge in 22.20 seconds, a reco After hearing about those fast times, Collins realized this made-for-TV format was rewarding fast, accurate shooting more than ever before. Collins has always been quick to get off accurate shots, but those top times would be difficult to beat. “I
heard through Rod White (who took second in Pennsylvania and shot the
Speed Challenge in 26.07 seconds) that the speeds were getting real
fast,” Collins said. “I hadn’t prepared for speed shooting in the
past, because I thought Randy Hendrix and I were the only ones who could
shoot four arrows in 30 seconds. All of a sudden, guys were shooting four
arrows in less than 25 seconds, and I heard Keith and Randy were under 20
seconds in practice.” Targeting the GamesCollins
spent most of May bowhunting for bears, which included shooting a
potential world-record polar bear in the Nunavut Territory, once the
eastern part of Canada’s Northwest Territories. When he returned home
and focused on the Great Outdoor Games in early June, he decided to go all
out. “During the first weekend of June I started setting up for practice, and that included a moving target,” Collins said. “I messed with the target’s gears until I got the right speed of 4.75 feet per second for the Bermuda Triangle, and then I started shooting. I spent a lot of time practicing on the moving target, but I never really got 100 percent consistent. I’d do great for a while and then miss it on back-to-back shots. “To improve my speed for Thread the Needle and the Speed Challenge, I had to make some changes,” Collins continued. “In earlier years, I didn’t want to practice speed shooting because I was afraid it would mess up my shooting. But when I heard about all those fast times, I took off my string loop and started working on a pace where I could hit all the targets and still get a fast time.” Collins estimates he shot between 4,000 and 6,000 practice arrows during June and early July to prepare. And before leaving for Reno, he made sure he was equipped to handle any equipment emergencies. Both his Mathews Q2XL, his primary bow, and his Mathews LX were equally ready to go. With the preparation and practice behind him, Collins said he felt more confident and comfortable. He has always liked single-elimination contests, saying the pressure helps him focus. “I have always done better in single-elimination formats,” he said. “I generally perform up to my abilities with that pressure, but I know some guys don’t handle it the same way. Some guys buckle at the knees and shoot under their capabilities. “That’s
why I like the Great Outdoor Games tournament,” Collins continued. “I
don’t think there could be more pressure in a tournament atmosphere than
what they put together for ESPN. No matter what aspect of archery you’re
talking about, there will not be a more important shot than what you face
in this tournament. Any single-elimination tournament is pressure-packed,
but when you’re shooting in front of a large, cheering crowd and know it
will be televised to a hundred million homes, that’s pressure. When you
aim, you know everything could come down to that one shot.” ConclusionAll his practice and mental preparations paid off. Collins won back-to-back rounds against Hendrix and Ulmer, and fast victories in the Speed Challenge station proved decisive. He raced through the four-shot Challenge in 24.63 seconds against Hendrix and in 19.52 seconds against Ulmer. Collins’ gold-medal time against Ulmer was the fastest ever recorded in competition. Hendrix’s time of 19.8 seconds in his bronze-medal match against Caudle was the only other sub-20-second performance in the Speed Challenge. Although Collins won the gold this year, he isn’t predicting a repeat in 2004. “First of all, if you put me and Randy Ulmer or me and Randy Hendrix on the line, and then have us shoot that round five times head-to-head, we’ll take turns going three-for-five,” Collins said. “We’re all very competitive. “Plus, the entire field got tougher this year and it’s only going to get tougher. They’re all learning better how to handle the challenges of each target. And the more they compete in this event and feel more comfortable with the pressure, the better they’ll perform.”
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