The Ladies’ Individual Archery event at Beijing Olympics

The stadium for Archery at Beijing Olympics is not rectangular, but rather long, narrow and fan-shaped. The spectator stands on two sides are raised platforms with seats in attractive yellow.

On that day of the event for Ladies' Individuals (Final), it was rainy. The spectators were given very colourful rain-coats. The stadium was half full. Many supporters were Chinese because one of the athletes was a Chinese girl, called Zhang Juan Juan.








In the game, each athlete, in turns, would shoot 3 arrows at a time, making a total of 12 shots for each. To me, the match was quite exciting. I witnessed the moment the arrow swung vigorously at its tail when shot out and flied forward at high speed. The arrows were made of steel, probably, and quite narrow. They had coloured plastic ends for easy clutching, pulling and identification.

The target board consisted of rings of yellow, red, light blue and black (from inside towards outside) Each archer would earn ten points if his/her arrow hit the innermost ring. The number of points reduced as arrows hit further away from the centre.

The opponent of the Chinese athlete was a Korean. She took the lead at the beginning. The points equalized at 8/12 for both athletes. That meant the last 4 arrows for each athlete were decisive. Finally Miss Zhang was able to beat her opponent by 1 point (110:109). She thus brought a Gold medal to herself as well as to her country. My hearty congratulations to her!