Bullseye: student athletes hitting the mark across the world

It’s a long way to Poland from Outtrim in South Gippsland, a farming community on the outskirts of coastal Inverloch. Yet that’s the path Mitchell James has taken to get to the World University Championship for archery.

Archery may seem like an odd choice for someone who hails from a region known more in athletic circles for it surf culture and country football leagues. But for James, the sport contains a lot of traits similar to those on the dairy farm he grew up on.

“It’s a very technical sport and very repetitive, not in a bad way of course, as you try and master it all. Some would say it’s tedious, but I get addicted to it, the challenge of always trying to improve and get it right,” he says.

The Melbourne Graduate School of Education student, a top-20 finisher in the 2012 World Championships, will be one of two Australians at the event and will be looking to build on his recent scores in local state-based competitions.

The newly converted compound archer – James changed from the Olympic-level ‘recurve’ bow last year wanting a new challenge – says the competition at an international level is intense. “I’d expect the Korean and American teams would be the ones to beat again, they are generally amongst the best at these open, world-level competitions.”

He laughs at suggestions that his skillset would not be out of place in The Hunger Games, a la Katniss Evergreen, the book character made famous by Jennifer Lawrence’s movie portrayal. 

“I guess I’d be fine, it is something I enjoy that I’m quite good at, and in some ways it appeals to me that with this sport I don’t have to rely on anyone else, it’s all down to me.

“I did shoot against a lot of guys who competed at the London Olympics in 2012 and had a good showing, but it takes a lot of hard work to stay at that level and be amongst the medals.

“One day I want to achieve that, I wouldn’t mind taking part in the world cup circuit (usually four events a year), but in the immediate future, a spot in the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018 is the main goal.”

While James was heading to Europe to face off against the world’s best university archers, Commerce student Luke Gillies was returning from competition abroad; albeit for karate on the fight-mats of Montenegro. 

“It’s absolutely up there in terms of a career highlight,” Mr Gillies reflects, having just missed out on a quarterfinal berth in this division. “With 38 countries represented by 350 competitors across 12 divisions both male and female, it was awesome to get there and compete.”

Mr Gillies, who was the only Victorian in a four-person Australian team, has been competing at a state level since he was 14, and nationally from 16, but says his experience in Europe has shown him what he needs to do to improve further.

“Before the event I got to train in Turkey with an ex-world champion of my division, Okay Arpa, which was just awesome as he’s someone I’d like to model my development off. We’re a similar size and I really rate how he moves around in competition.

“I’m very keen to head back to Europe after the Oceania Championships in September and compete every weekend. There are so many competitions of a good standard happening all the time, and I think it will help me improve rapidly.”

It will be badminton in which the University will be the best represented in international competition this month, with both Luke Chong and Wung Lin Mak featuring in the Australian team going to the World University Championships.

Chong, this year’s Team Captain for the event in the Spanish city of Cordoba and who will be attending his third championships, says that if previous events are any guide, Olympic level talent will be on display. 

“The standard is unbelievably high, it’s right up there with the top international tournaments. At the last World University Summer Games both China and Korea put in their full strength Olympic squad. It makes it a difficult proposition, but a fantastic experience.”

He says that while badminton is still a sporting minnow in Australia when compared with cricket or swimming, it continues to grow. “The standard is slowly improving, but it’s hard to compare with many of the top Asian countries as for them it’s basically their national sport. Most of our national team contains part-timers like myself.

“I love it because it’s the fastest racquet sport in the world and there are so many aspects to master; alongside speed, strength and good reaction times you need to have skill and finesse as well.”

“It never gets stale or boring.”

For more information about MU Sport’s Elite Athlete Program, go to 

http://www.sport.unimelb.edu.au/EliteAthleteProgram 

The University will be well represented in Glasgow this month when the 20th Commonwealth Games get under way from 23 July. Biomedicine student Alex Rowe will be looking for gold in the 800m, after finishing second in the event at the Australian Athletics Championships and fourth in the IAAF World Challenge Meet earlier this year. Alumnus Jeff Tho will help fly the flag for Australia in the badminton, fresh off winning the 2014 Oceania Championships. And another graduate Tory Thomas will make her Games debut in mountain biking.