JAMES ANNALL
James Annall was GBR’S sole barebow male archer shooting at the World Games this year. It was his first international event outside Europe. He spoke to Mimi Landström.
WHAT DREW YOU TO BAREBOW?
I love the challenge of it, it’s taken many years of experimentation with technique, tuning and equipment to get to where I am now. It can be frustrating when sight marks change mid-shoot, but being adaptable and having the self-confidence to know when to change things is all part of it.
HOW DID YOU GET SELECTED FOR THE WORLD GAMES AND HOW DID YOU PREPARE?
GBR got to go after winning quota spots at the 2021 European Field Championships. For the British team, selection was decided from scores shot at tournaments between May 2021 and March 2022, with the aggregate of the archers’ three best scores considered. Each bow style has its own minimum required score level; for gents’ barebow the three scores needed to be over 640 for a two-day shoot or 320 for a single day mixed/marked round.
I started preparing over the (previous) winter, increasing the quantity of arrows I was shooting compared with previous years, to try to make some form of progress. In the past five years or so I have barely shot over the winter indoor season, not having a club indoor facility. This year, I shot a couple of extra indoor competitions, and added three evenings a week of 5m practice at home shooting at 1cm dots, to work on shot confidence and maintain aiming steadiness.
I’ve had a very busy spring, in addition to the UK field and 3D tournaments I’ve also been doing several outdoor target shoots, mainly the 50m barebow rounds, with the head-to-heads to gain the extra experience shooting under pressure. I struggled with heat on the first couple of days at the World 3D’s in Terni 2015, so to prepare for the climate, I spent the three weeks prior to the games wearing an extra couple of layers of clothing to work, to at least prepare myself for the temperature. It worked effectively, as the heat didn’t faze me.
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU GOT THERE?
We barebows had decided to fly out a couple of days ahead of the schedule to give us more time to acclimatise. It did mean we could go and watch the recurve event. The field qualifying course was well laid out, giving spectators the chance to see most of the targets, with only four of the 12 targets out of sight in the woods. It was a privilege to agent (score and pull arrows) for both Patrick and Bryony during their recurve head-to-head rounds. Course-wise, I hoped for as much shade as possible, with varied terrain, and at least some challenging targets. The course did make use of the park features to stage the shots well, with some steeper slopes and footing challenges. It was great that the course had been designed to allow spectators to watch most of the targets and get a good sense of what field archery is all about.
During our three-hour practice session the day before qualification, I ran through my sight marks and the bow was shooting well at the long distances. However, when I moved down to the shorter distances 30m and under, I started to notice arrows were landing on the left edge of the five into the four. Once I got down to the ‘bunnies’, 15m, 10m, 5m they were still landing left, creeping out to the four/three line, which was very odd. I wondered if it was just the heat affecting my shot slightly, so tried adjusting my button to push arrows back over. Almost two hours into the session I decided something definitely wasn’t right, so got the limb gauges out to check alignment to find that my top limb was twisted. I made a quick decision to stick my spare limbs on to my main riser, then spent the last 45 minutes of the practice rushing around checking sight marks and tweaking the button to check it was grouping and shooting straight at all distances. Bit of unexpected practice shooting with adrenalin!
WHAT GEAR ARE YOU USING, AND WHAT’S THAT WEIGHT ON THE FRONT OF YOUR RISER?
My main setup is a Fivics Titan EX 27in riser with Fivics Vellator carbon/ wood 32lb long limbs (holding around 38lb), Shibuya Ultima rest (with self-made arm), and a 650g brass weight. I use Easton ACE arrows with Beiter insert nocks and Xs-wings, 60mm low profile. I had decided to experiment with moving weight forward and lower. I had previously tried a 250g second weight on the bottom limb pocket but didn’t like the feel of it. I initially tried an 800g brass weight attached at two points, but it was a bit too heavy and caused a great deal of shock and noise. I changed that after a year to the 650g weight attached at a single point.