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2003 Duel in the
Desert
October 25th and 26th, 2003 Eldorado Park, Long
Beach, CA The 2003 Duel in the
Desert in California was a unique one.
The Duel in the Desert is hosted by a cooperative of the Southern
California JOAD clubs. One of the
nice things about competing at Eldorado Park is that the park entry fee is
paid at the gate and does not take away from tournament proceeds. In contrast, events at Ben Avery must
charge $10 to $ 15 dollars more to pay off the AZ Game and Fish Department of
$5 per day range fee. The entry fee
for the same tournament at Ben Avery would be $45 including a practice day
and both tournament days. Proceeds from the California
Duel tournament will be used to purchase tournament equipment that is made
available to all the area JOAD clubs.
All of the California Duel help including Judges and DOS are
volunteers. The California Duel in
the Desert series is a model of JOAD cooperation and unity! In 2003, California
fielded a full team and Arizona had a full team until the last minute. By the end of the tournament Arizona still
had 23 competitors to California’s 22, unique. The majority of Arizonans made their way to California on
Friday with news of wild fires in the LA area. The drive into Long Beach was similar to driving thru heavy
fog. The fires proved to be a
significant factor. Let us hope that
the “uniqueness” of this tournament is not repeated again. The tournament began
on Saturday morning. California set
up a nice cactus garden and displayed a “Duel in the Desert” banner. During official
practice, Nicole Rasor robin hooded a California team member’s arrow at 70
meters to foreshadow the final results.
Shooting for score began at 10:30 AM as late registrants were
accommodated. There were about 140
archers including Disabled US and Canadian Team members, Dine’ College and Stanford
University team members and area JOADs.
Between ends, music is played and some wander over to the two giant
“lube tubes” in the middle of the field.
After official practice the first long distance was shot and then an
hour lunch break was taken. There
was a food concessionaire on site. A
tee shirt vendor was also on site to create exactly the shirt you wanted. The second distance
scoring began at 1:30 PM. The smell
of smoke was evident and flakes of ash fell like bits of snow. After thirty-six more arrows it was time
for many of the Arizona Team to head to Joe’s Crab Shack for an early
dinner. After a little dinner and
“dancing”, the team went separate ways hoping that the night would put the
fires to bed. After the first day,
the California men had a commanding lead and the California women were also
leading. Many of the mens and ladies
matches were very close and made leader board watching interesting. The Sunday morning TV
news was exclusively fire related.
Over the evening, the fires had moved into housing areas and early
reports indicated that hundreds of homes were lost. Two California competitors and an alternate that was pressed
into duty, withdrew from the competition because of freeway closures and the
need to see if their houses needed attention, unique. The competition began
around 9:30 AM as the concerns about the fire imparted a sense of
urgency. There were no lunch
concessions so an hour and a half lunch break was taken. In spite of the new
day, the California men continued to win most of the matches even though many
were very close. By days end, the
California won the Men’s Team competition as well as the overall California
Duel in the Desert Team competition.
On the other hand Arizona women came back strongly gaining ground on
every end. The Arizona women were
able to win many close matches. By
days end the five of the six Senior Women’s FITA tournament medals were won
by Arizona team members. WOW. Arizona will keep the Duel in the Desert
Women’s Team trophy for a second year in a row even though the 2003 Arizona
Women Team was short one member. The event was over by
3:30 PM and awards given out by 4:15 PM.
California had just gotten off daylight savings time the night
before. As a result many left the
field around 5:30 PM Arizona time to return to Phoenix by 1:00 AM and Tucson
by 3:00 AM. As of this writing
fires continue to rage from LA to San Diego and have reached disastrous
proportion. More and more homes are
being destroyed and most disturbingly lives are being lost. Our little Duel in the Desert pales in
comparison to the fires that grip southern California. We hope that normalcy will return soon and
look forward to welcoming California Duel in the Desert Team to Arizona in
October of 2004. How
did the AZJOAD do? Terrific! Brandon
Hunt
Junior Male Compound won all of the distances and won the FITA gold medal,
Congratulations Brandon. Brady
Ellison
Junior Compound team alternate competed in the open portion of the tournament
and won the FITA silver medal behind Brandon. Michael
Mitchell, Junior Male Recurve did not fare as well, better luck next
time. Mary
Frangos,
Junior Female Recurve won four out of five points and FITA gold, Great Job Mary. Robyn Repp competed as a Senior
Compound to fill out the Senior team and won a distance point, good work. Maggie Huff competed as a Senior
Recurve and finished with a bronze FITA medal and a distance and FITA match
victory. Lindsay Pian competed as a Senior
Recurve and finished with a silver FITA medal and three distances and a FITA
match victory. Rocky Repp, bowman compound,
competed in the open portion of the tournament and won a gold medal for the
FITA. Arizona did not field
a Junior Female compound and forfeited all five points. After glow: 1. Every State would
benefit from more girl and boy JOADs in both recurve and compound bow. 2. In the short term
Arizona needs more Female compound archers to be able to field a full
team. Arizona female JOADs in general
are depended upon to fill the senior team positions. They do a good job at it. 3. Arizona seems to have
a good number of senior males but few junior males. 4. Jessica Grant won the compound FITA
gold medal while Becky Pearson won silver. 5. Nicole Rasor won the recurve FITA
gold medal. 6. Dine College’s Brenda
Harrison won FITA gold in the Collegiate Womens Recurve Division 7. Tournament
organizers canceled two of the Senior Women Compound matches by granting two
CA people excuses who did not compete on the 2nd day due to the
fires, These two matches were not judged forfeits so AZ was not awarded those
distances or FITA total points in two matches. Rules governing use of Alternates during the tournament and
when is a match canceled versus forfeited need to be clarified. Return to Top Return to
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