Free time goings-on

For those that know me well, know that my other passion besides archery is Computer gaming. Before my health got too bad i was a game developer in the USA, I worked on the Unreal Mission Pack, Star Trek- Deep Space 9, Rune, Rune Viking Warlord (PS2), Unreal Tournament 2003 and my last project was "Prey". Sadly due to the deterioration of my health and extremely long hours involved i had to give it up and thats basically why i took up Archery.

Why are you telling us this? i hear you yawn. Well in my spare time (which is surely going to deminish the closer we get to August) I play an online game called "Lord of the Rings Online" this is a game where you create a character and build it up by completing quests and killing monsters. It is also a great way to meet some fantastic new friends.

You do have to be careful though as it is very addictive and before you know it hours have passed in the blink of an eye. I have a few characters in the game and i am a member of a "Kinship" which is simply a group of like-minded people who get together and basically have fun and help each other get the most out of the game.

The Kinship i am in is called "The Hard Biscuits" and they are the nicest and most friendliest group of gamers you could wish too meet.

Lou, my wife also plays and when we play together i play a Minstrel (a healer) whos job it is to keep her character alive. So seeing as Lou is also my performance coach it's in my interest to make sure her character doesn't come to any harm :)

And my Characters, well like i said i have a few but my highest level character is level 50, the maximum level currently obtainable what is he? He's a badass with a bow of course :) If i could shoot as well as him, a Gold Medal in Beijing would be a shoe-in..

Meet Aelluin..the Hunter

Video Analysis

As promised in one of my earlier posts, here is the video footage of me shooting at squad training camp back in February.

The red numbers you may be able to make out is where the arrow landed on the target eg. 9@5 means the arrow scored a Nine in the Five o'clock position on the target face. (the X is dead centre) The target distance was 70m.



We also found out that it wasn't really going to be zero degrees in Korea, more like somewhere between 7 and 15, so although it's not going to be that warm, it's a heck of a lot better than i thought. :) Only just over 2 weeks to go before we set off. There's going to be a good tournament while we are out there so we'll be able to shoot against the Koreans again and apparently the Japanese team will also be there..good fun!!

2008 World Rankings

I have just received a copy of the 2008 IPC World Rankings. I have moved up just one place this year to 11th and have to admit i am a little dissapointed. My goal was to be in the top ten..ahh well!

One positive thing is that the guy ranked 3rd (Kimimasa Onodera. JPN) was the guy i beat in the 1/16ths in the World Championships in Korea last year.

Just goes to show that anything is possible in the Elimination matches and rankings don't really count for much when it's just you, your opponent and 12 arrows!