President’s Address

18 September 06

Hi All,

The trials are over (well almost), the competitions done and the results are out. To those who achieved their objectives, well done. Others? Don’t worry, keep the chins up and get ready for the next battle call to arms.

Open Trial for National Training Squad (19 and above)

We had a very wet weekend and this affected the completion of the trial. As a result, only one round was completed and the results was taken as official. The 2 ends of the second round were discarded due to the adverse conditions under which they were shot.

To the organizers of the trial, Flaming Arrows Archery Club, we say thank you for a superbly organized event. In the words of Ting Yue, one of the participating archers, “the trial was the best ever organized”. The standards have now been set and we would like to see future trials and competitions be organized along such standards.

My apologies to Ray and Don for giving them some wrong information regarding the number of trials available to get chosen into the Nat Squad. Seems there was supposed to be only one trial as stated in the NTS document and not three.

After talking to a few archers, I am of the opinion that there is a general confusion about the purpose of the trial. Some thought that it was a trial for getting into the Myanmar Team, others thought it was for selection into the Nat Squad, and some thought it was for both. Shucks, I even had one archer who replied that he did not really know what was happening but was there to shoot as he was told to be there and shoot.

So, a little clearing of the air is needed.

The original scheme of thing was that the 16 September trial was to be used for selecting archers into the 19 and above Nat Squad (NSOpen). That was why the very enticing scores of 450 and 500 were set and over 33 archers responded. 6 archers missed the 9 September dateline and 3 archers did not turn up (in future we will impose penalties for no-shows).

On September 30 and October 01, we will have the single selection session for the coming Myanmar 3rd Grand Prix (so ‘trials’ are for getting into Nat Squads and ‘selection’ are for Nat Squad members to get into a particular competition Nat Team). This 2 day selection will see archers shoot a double 70 on the first day and a full FITA on Sunday 01 October (to test endurance as well) and the combine scores will be used to determine the Myanmar 3rd Grand Prix Team or Nat Team One.

As a concession to those who missed the first trial, the committee has decided that they will be allowed to shoot on September 30 and to use their first round score as their submission score for entry into the NSOpen. If they fail in this attempt, they will not be allowed to carry on with the second round of the day. If they qualify, they will proceed on to shoot the second round of the double 70 and the next day FITA event.

For Nat Team One, we will be choosing, based on the September 30 and October 01 combine scores ranking, the following:

Once selected, a Nat Team One meeting will be held on 03 October at 7 pm where the training programme, tournament information, etc., will be presented. Attendance is compulsory for all selected members and the first reserves.

All archers who qualify to be on the Nat Squads (any group) may sign up for the September 30/October 01 trial. We will start the trial on Saturday Sept 30 with the same programme that was used for the 16 Sept. trial. That is, check in by 1.20 pm. Equipment inspection at 1.15 pm, 30 minutes of control shoot at 1.30 pm . On Sunday, we start at 8.10 am for equipment inspection, 8.15 am last check-in, 8.30 am for control practice and scoring shoot starts at 9.00 am.

Invitation to clubs to hold the next Trial

Clubs that are interested in hosting the next trial cum selection on September 30 and October 01(or for any subsequent trials) are invited to write in to me to express their interest. You should write in by midnight Wednesday 20, September, 2006. If more than one club is interested we may split the venue of the selection to inject a change of environment/adaptability. So far, AAS has imposed on FAAC to conduct the trials (due to the short timing of events) even though it has inconvenienced their members greatly. Thanks FAAC.

If no one is interested in hosting the paid event, AAS will once again impose on FAAC to do it as they have the expertise, range and facilities to do so.

National Judges Course

Gentle reminder to the twenty or so interested candidates that have signed up so far that the course starts this Friday 22 September at 7.30 pm sharp. Judges are supposed to be very discipline personnel and Judge Leong will not wait for any late comers. Go to the lecture room on level 4 of the Zhenghua CC (Bukit Panjang). You should have received your assignments by now and if you have not please contact Judge Leong.

If you want to join in the course, write directly to Judge Leong at the email address above.

George Loh
President
AAS