The indoor season has already started for some of the top shooters in the country.  Seven US representatives competed in the high pressure, quick paced Face 2 Face tournament this past week in Amsterdam.  The highest US finish came from Bryan Helland who won the silver medal in the men’s compound division.  The US also managed two top 10 performances from USAT members Dave Cousins (8^th, men’s compound) and Joy Fahrenkrog (5^th women’s recurve).

The match-play only format of Face 2 Face tournament was excellent preparation for the US World Indoor Trials that begin in mid-January.  In order to advance, archers had to outshoot the other competitors in their pool.  Instead of the traditional 2 minutes per end, the archers were only allowed 30 seconds per arrow.  To help spectators understand who was leading the pools, 2 points were awarded for winning a match, 1 point for tying, and 0 points for losing.  In the first qualification round, each archer shot 5 matches, the top two shooters in each pool automatically advanced to the next round while 12 additional spots were awarded to the shooters with the highest non-automatic scores.  During the second qualification round, the archers again had to shoot 5 matches against the other competitors in their new pool.  Again the two shooters who won the most matches advanced to the next qualification round along with 4 additional archers who qualified based on score.  The women’s recurve division was the only division that just ran two qualification rounds due to a limited number of participants.  In order to make the semi-finals, archers needed to be one of the top two match players in their respective pools during the third qualification round, best non-automatic score no longer aided the archers in advancing. 

The semi finals and the finals were based on a best out of 5 ends and best out of 7 ends system.  With the stands packed, the finals were an event not to be missed.  After beating Dutchman Peter Elzinga in the semi finals, the top US finisher, Bryan Helland, was matched up in with Martin Damsbo from Denmark in the finals.  Damsbo, having already knocked out both Dave Cousins and John Dudley in tie breakers in previous rounds, continued his winning streak, besting Helland 4 matches to 1.  Two of the 5 matches shot between Helland and Damsbo were tie breakers.  Helland was not one to be disappointed however, speaking about his second place finish he said, “This is unbelievable, I never expected to come this far.  I just wanted to come to the tournament and make it through the first few elimination rounds.” 

While Helland was enjoying his top US finish, others were dealing with the format in their own way.  In other men’s compound news, Dave Cousins, the US’s third top finish and second highest finish in the most subscribed division barely missed the finals in a nail biting face off.  After a good start in the third elimination round, Cousins and Damsbo needed to break a tie in order to advance to the finals.  On the first three arrows they tied 10, 10, 9 which forced them into a sudden death shoot off where the person closest to the center would clinch the match.  Both shot 10s but Damsbo managed to win by just a sliver.  Cousins was then ranked 8^th based on score.  

John Dudley (14^th) had met a similar fate earlier when he lost to Damsbo in a tie breaker and missed the non-automatic score cut for the third qualification round by just one point.  Despite not advancing, he was in good spirits during the finals.  Having recently been named Mathews’ International Sales Director, he was pleased to see two Mathews shooters in the top 3.  Prize money was awarded to the top 4 finishers as well as bonus money to compound men shooting a Mathews bow.  During the awards ceremony, Dudley was there to hand out two checks worth a total of $4000 to F2F Champion Dane Martin Damsbo and 3^rd place winner Dejan Sitar from Slovenia.

In the women’s recurve division, Joy Fahrenkrog, who had the second highest American finish (5^th) managed to find herself in the toughest women’s recurve pool both days.  During the second elimination round, she shot the third highest score overall but did not win enough matches to advance.  About the experience she said, “Apart from not making the top 4, I couldn’t have asked for a better turn around performance.  This was my first taste of international competition and I’m pleased with what I learned.”  About switching bows from a W&W to a PSE two weeks prior to shooting in the tournament, Fahrenkrog said that although she was apprehensive at first to make the switch, posting a tournament personal best of 564 under that kind of pressure seemed to ease her mind.

Other finishes: Aya La Brie (13^th) had a the 4^th highest score during the first qualification of the women’s compound division but failed to advance to the third qualification round when she missed out on the non-automatic score by only one point.  She later found out that she had a piece of equipment malfunction during the shoot.  Newcomer Tuna Hawley (16^th place women’s compound) who is coached by Brian Helland also failed to advance to the third round by just 3 points.  In the men’s recurve division, Guy Krueger (25^th) struggled to qualify for the second round by just one point.  He was however invited to teach a seminar to some of the Dutch locals after the end of the tournament. 

To see complete results go to www.face2face-archery.org and click on the Results link.  To see pictures of the American contingency, go to www.joyfahrenkrog.com and look for the link under the Latest Updates.