After a year with nothing to eat, a Luxembourg delegation took part this weekend in a competition in Nîmes.
The last time they had taken part in a competition was in Nîmes. A little over a year ago. This weekend, Pit Klein and his partner Mariya Shkolna as well as Arnaud Hocevar were back in the south of France for the only round of the Indoor World Series of the season. A somewhat special competition since due to the sanitary situation, it was reduced to its minimum portion: “The Americans did not come. Instead of 1,200 shooters, we were only a big hundred “, indicates Pit Klein, who has however been able to train in almost normal conditions in recent months:” I was able to train with my parents. And in December in Ukraine, with Mariya’s family. ”
But training is not worth a competition. And this, Pit Klein was able to realize at the end of a completely failed first day since he only takes the 24e qualifying place with 558 pts: “It was horrible, I was not able to reproduce what I usually do in training. I reacted too late. When I changed, I didn’t have enough strength to shoot good arrows. But the second day, I was in better shape. ” He won his round of 16 against the Slovenian Habjan Malasavic in a shoot-off before losing to the French Jocelyn de Grandis in the eighth (3-7): “The record is good. Getting ready but not having a competition to confirm things is not good. You are nowhere. Now, with these two days in Nîmes, I know where I am. It allows me to leave with something positive to resume training in order to prepare for the first big meeting, the GP of Porec, Croatia, in March. ”
In compound, his partner took a very good sixth place: “It was very stressful because we had no benchmarks after a year without competition,” confides the archer Grand Ducal. “I’m happy to finish in the top 8 even if my result would have allowed me to advance to the semi-final. In the qualifications, I am 11 pts less than last year. I just had no feeling, ”says Mariya Shkolna.
Big meetings to come
His compatriot Arnaud Hovecar set a personal best in qualifying with 588 and a nice 10e place before the direct matches, where he lost in the round of 16 against the French Nathan Cadronet. He will take the 17e place.
The indoor season begins and ends in Nîmes. So it’s time to return to training before, normally, a first outdoor competition in Croatia. If the calendar is maintained, the season will be rich with two huge meetings, namely Antalya (May 31-June 6), where the European Championship and the European Olympic qualification will be held jointly with three places for Tokyo at stake. . And Paris (June 22-27), which will host a World Cup and the last qualifying competition for Tokyo. There will also be the world championships in the USA, in Yankton (September 19-26). In the meantime, Pit Klein and Mariya Shkolna will normally have taken the direction of Guatemala, to discover a new World Cup (April 19-25). If, of course, the health situation allows it.
Romain Haas
