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Archers set for Sweden
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Rebecca
Nelson-Harris draws down on a target with her bare recurve style bow
during a practice session Friday afternoon at Nevada County Sportsmen
archery range in Nevada City.
The Union photo/Louise Caulfield
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By Jeff Miller
June 27, 2006
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Rebecca Nelson-Harris began her archery career as a 7-year-old at a summer camp, where she first picked up a bow.
Then she took 40 years off.
Nelson-Harris,
now 51 and living in Lake of the Pines, didn't shoot another arrow
until three years ago, after she was inspired by taking her sons to a
camp of their own.
Now she's preparing to compete in her second World Field Archery Championships from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
"I
saw an article in the paper about archery and I told my two boys they
should try it," Nelson-Harris said. "They loved it, but I wasn't just
going to watch them. I remembered how much fun it was and I wanted to
do it."
Because of her experience as a competitive alpine skier
when she was in high school, she knew the kind of focus it would take
to improve as rapidly as she wanted. After a year of training six days
a week, she was on her way to Croatia for the 2004 world championships.
She finished 12th of 24 women in the women's senior barebow at the
event.
In field archery, anyone over 18 is considered a senior.
Field
archery is different from other forms of archery in that it requires
competitors to shoot at targets up steep hills or off of cliffs, as
well as on flat ground.
"You usually have pretty extreme shots where you have high angles or a severe downward shot," Nelson-Harris said.
Making
the sport even more difficult, half of the distances of targets are
unmarked, leaving archers to estimate how far to shoot.
Three others from western Nevada County are joining Nelson-Harris on her trip to Europe.
Alden
Harris, one of Nelson-Harris' sons, is also traveling to Sweden in
August for the championships. The 18-year-old is in his last year
competing as a junior in the recurve division.
Grass Valley's Mark Applegate and Ty Pelfry from Penn Valley are also competing.
The four qualified for the world championships at
the three-day National Field Championships/World Field Trials in
Spokane, Wash., where Nelson-Harris won her division. Harris advanced
because there was no one competing against him.
Nelson-Harris'
youngest son, a 16-year-old named Nelson Harris, did not compete in
Spokane and is not headed to Sweden. According to his mother, however,
he is still very active in the sport - but probably not as much as her.
Nelson-Harris still goes to the shooting range six days a week - the same way she started three years ago.
"I work hard," she said. "I think of myself as an athlete. When I take something on I work very hard and try to perfect myself.
"But I do think that I have some natural ability."
ooo
To contact sportswriter Jeff Miller, e-mail jeffm@theunion.com or call 477-4240.
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