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Sunday August 16 |
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We
woke up this morning at 6:00 and called Melani on Skype. It was 9:00
Saturday evening and they were just on the cake and port portion of a Julia
Childs meal with Mom, Brian, Trish and Rebecca. It was a great way to
start the day. We
went to breakfast at 8:00, which was the same sausage and toast. There
were no hard boiled eggs this time. Courtney was told they were all
gone. Once again, they are very frugal here. Wouldn’t want
anything to go to waste, so the minimum is best. The dining room is
quite hot and humid. There are windows, but they are never opened for
some reason, so it feels much like a Sana. It’s even worse for the
servers behind the steam tables. That is probably why they are so surly
and have no problem saying no if you request something that you are not
entitled to. Joe wanted cheese for his potato at dinner and he was told
“no.” I wanted the thing that looked like sweet potatoes the first
night and I was told “no.” Very funny really. After
breakfast, we had the morning free, so Courtney and I decided to take a walk
around the grounds. We took a path that went along side the lake where
people were fishing and then passed the tennis courts which are at the
outskirts of the sports center. Before we knew it, we had come to the
town of Nymburk. It wasn’t far at all; about a mile we guess because it
took no more than 20 minutes to walk it. A beautiful tree lined road
with lots of skaters and bicyclists. Right as we were coming into town,
we passed the hotel where some of the athletes are staying and there were 2
ladies from the Turkish team sitting out front. They asked to take our
picture with them. They spoke very little English, but just enough to
exchange names. It was a very nice encounter. We then made our
way into the town and walked around a little bit. It is very quaint
with lots of shops and some restaurants, and even a couple of bars. Amazing
to see a couple of people in one of the bars drinking beer at 9:30 in the
morning. There was an old church and the church bells sounded
wonderful. Of course, since we hadn’t planned on going into town, we
had no camera with us. That’s okay; we’ll go back again now that we
know where it is. When
we got back I tried to read some, but got really tired and so I lay down for
an hour. It felt really good. I thought I was coming down with a
cold, but I don’t feel it anymore, so maybe it was allergies mixed with
fatigue. We
had lunch at noon, which was chicken and rice again, and then got ready for
the opening ceremonies. Courtney and the other coaches brought all the
equipment to a tent at the field so we would be ready to practice immediately
after the ceremonies. The weather turned quite warm and very
humid. All the teams processed onto the practice field and stood for
the opening ceremony. We marched in to a Michael Jackson medley; not
sure what the symbolism is there. They then began with a very nice male
choir and then some introductions of VIP’s such as the Mayor of Nymburk and
the head of the Czech archery committee. Then they introduced the
officials. They had some sky divers land nearby. I could hear the
rustling of the parachute as one of them landed, that’s how close they were
to us. After
the opening ceremonies, we all went to our tents and got out our equipment to
be inspected. We could practice while we were waiting for our country
to be called. I felt much better today shooting. I drank lots of
water which I think helped. By
the time the equipment was broken down and stowed, it was time for
dinner. Tonight I had fish and pasta. There really is not much
fiber in this diet for sure. The fish was good, but lots of bones.
We
had our team meeting at 8:00 this evening. We were given the schedule
for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the first day of competition. We will
shoot the first 2 distances in the qualifying round. For visually
impaired, that means the 60 cm target and the 80 cm target. The
visually impaired archers shoot in the afternoon, starting at 1:30. We
were given our target assignments. I am on target 29A, which means I
stand on the left. Massimiliano, the archer from Italy, shoots on 29B,
on my right. Ruben from Belgium is on 30A by himself. The team
from Sri Lanca didn’t show up, so there are just three of us. Going to
be fun. I’m ready, just need to stay calm. Today I was rushing my
shots a bit during practice, but once I settled down and took some breaths
in-between shots, everything fell into place pretty well. Apparently
the scores will be posted on line in real time. The web site is www.archery.org. I was told there is
a link for Para-archery World Championships and then one for results.
Remember, we are 9 ours ahead, so you should be able to see how I did the
first day by about 9:00 AM your time. Jeff
Fabry, our team captain, gave us a pep talk at the end of the meeting.
He said to shoot your own shot and don’t let the other archers get to
you. He said the competition can be pretty fierce at this level and
they will try lots of things like crowding you on line and being as smelly as
possible. He said not to let it get to you. T.J. said not to hesitate
to call a judge if they try to crowd your space. That isn’t something I
have to worry about because our spots are pretty staked out and we are very
friendly with Ruben from Belgium. I haven’t shot with the gentleman
from Italy yet, so I don’t know about him. He wasn’t at practice today
for some reason. Maybe he shot in the morning and not in the
afternoon. We’re
wearing our white shirts again tomorrow, so we had to do a quick washing out
this evening. There is no place in this room to hang anything so
Courtney had to improvise a place out on the balcony with zip ties.
There is no drain for the sink, so he also had to improvise that.
Good thing he is so creative.
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