PHOTO-REPORT: Archery League – at the final day of the team championships hosted by BogenTeam Cölln

The distance is 18 meters. The tool of choice of the eight teams a recurve bow – as used at the Olympics. It’s the final day of the 2018 team championships of a western Germany archery league. The day that leads the way to the next higher league – or not. With the host, BogenTeam Cölln, aiming at the Landesoberliga.

BogenTeam Cölln team member Frank Wingens prepares himself for the next round.

Also used at the Olympic Games: the recurve bow.

“It’s a great performance also in terms of concentrations,” says Christel Freitag, chairperson of BogenTeam Cölln. With all in all seven matches per team, a full day of competition can last up to four hours.

What makes a team championship special is the mode: Three archers make a team. With everyone of the trio sending out two arrows on six targets. Then the results are checked and presented in real time. “It’s what makes the day special and interesting,” states Christel Freitag, who herself is an active archer. Today she operates as a back up to the team. The competition can be close and thrilling up to the last minute and arrow.

The results are checked and then presented in real time.

“Archery still is kind of a fringe sports,” says Christel Freitag. “But it is getting better.” German archer Lisa Unruh is among the best in Europe and the world and helps promoting archery.

For BogenTeam Cölln travelling does not take them to the Olympics, like for Lisa Unruh – they find their opponnents in the western parts of Germany.

(Reported by Lars Göllnitz)