Javier upbeat on Olympic chances

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino archer Mark Javier returns to the Olympics in London starting July 27 with high hopes of improving on his performance in Beijing four years ago and welcomes the new competition system as a fair way to determine the best shooters.

Javier, 30, explains that in London, the head-to-head knockout duels are split into best-of-five ends or sets where archers are given three arrows each. The winner of an end earns two points and the loser, none. A tie will give a point each to the shooters. The first to garner six points clinches the set. If there is a tie at the end of the fifth end, the arrows shoot-off with a single arrow. The archer who tops five knockout series collects the gold medal. In Beijing, the head-to-head matches were settled by the higher score for 12 arrows.

The schedule starts off on July 27 with 64 male and 64 female archers shooting for seeding places. Each competitor fires 72 arrows, split into two halves of 36. The scores will rank every archer from No. 1 to No. 64. Then, the head-to-head knockout matches for men and women begin on July 30. Three days are set aside for the round-of-32 and round-of-16 eliminations. The round-of-8, round-of-four and finals for women will be on Aug. 2 while the same will be on Aug. 3 for men.

According to Javier, the new system was implemented by FITA (Federation Internationale de Tir a l’Arc or World Archery Federation) in 2009. “It’s a system that allows you to come back if you make a mistake because the scoring isn’t cumulative unlike in Beijing,” says Javier, an Information Technology graduate of Silliman University in Dumaguete in 2005. “It’s not necessarily easier but it’s very fair because it reduces the incidence of a good streak or a bad streak to win or lose. For instance, if you lose in the first end, you can come back in the next to even the score right away. It’s not like in the 12-arrow system where if you fall behind by a big margin, it’s almost impossible to come back. It’s a race-to-six points from the first head-to-head knockout match to the finals.”

Semifinal losers will shoot off for the bronze medal. The target will be at a distance of 70 meters. Only recurve bows are allowed. They are coated in fiberglass and arrows are made of aluminum and carbon graphite with the capacity to travel at more than 240 kilometers an hour. The other type of bow is the compound which is used in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games as a separate archery category.

Javier was seeded No. 36 of 64 after the 72-arrow preliminaries in Beijing. He lost to Chinese-Taipei’s No. 29 seed Kuo Cheng Wei, 106-102, in the round-of-32. “In my first Olympics, I was overwhelmed by the tournament conditions,” he recalls. “Against Kuo, it came down to the last two arrows. We were tied up to the 10th arrow. With that experience, I think I’m more mentally prepared to compete this time. My dream is to win the gold for our country. The new system gives you a 50-50 chance to make it out of every end. Archery is more mental than physical. You’ve got to be mentally tough. I prepare myself through imagery. I visualize the target before I shoot and I see myself hitting the bull’s eye with every arrow.”

Javier, a bachelor, says he’s devoted himself full-time to archery. He turned down a juicy offer to work at a call center this year to focus exclusively on the sport. Javier started his love affair with archery as a 16-year-old Silliman freshman in 1998, joining the varsity. He went on to claim a slot on the national team and has now competed in two World Championships, two Asian Games and three SEA Games. In 2005, Javier won a gold medal in the team event at the SEA Games and two years later, brought back a bronze, also in the team event.

Javier’s father Manuel, an air gun enthusiast, influenced his inclination towards marksmanship. “I was 12 when my father taught me how to shoot an air gun,” says Javier. “When I enrolled at Silliman, I was introduced to archery and I liked it because it also had to do with being accurate in hitting the target. I wanted to be good at it and I practiced long hours to be competitive. With positive thinking and determination, I’ve been able to reach the summit by qualifying for the Olympics not once but twice.”