
Tournament report: CAP Western Regional Championships, 2008
STAR FITA + ORs
No excuses.
I had everything going for me. Experience, recognition, hardware, even a team. The wind was big, but not insurmountable. I've been sleeping. It just took me until noon on Sunday to show up.
I was shaky, I was out of focus, I had no attention span. I was shooting like a Michael Bay film. Well, nothing exploded. But I almost might as well have. I simply could not find the target, could not keep my sight there, and could not release clean. After Saturday, I was something like a hundred and twenty points behind where I should be. Fifty meters was not spectacular -- though after Easton Cup, my standards for it are raised -- but I did correct a nock point problem, which probably helped a lot. Thirty was no worse than ever (I can shoot 320 on a bad day, there), so I don't have to cry myself completely to sleep. But my FITA score was downright shameful. I had no spectacular moments in the ORs either, and was eliminated in the quarterfinals as the day drew on.
It was a good weekend for the team, though, bringing in 6th-7th-8th place in the FITAs and a bronze medal after ORs. We're definitely on the radar now. USIACs is on the horizon, and we'll have three solid weeks with nothing to do but practice. And I absolutely have to use them. Practice, or the lack thereof, killed me this weekend. I don't want to make that mistake again.
I also don't want to try to coordinate travel with someone that insists on flying standby again, but may not have a choice.
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