Competition begins

Day 14 of our trip, and today we moved into the serious end of things – the start of competition. The waiting is finally over, as the archers start what will be, for many of them, the most important event of their lives. The last few days have seen an increase in intensity, punctuated only by attending the Opening Ceremony, an experience which all of us involved will never forget. As the GB team organised their parade in alphabetical order of sport, we were the first in line behind the GB flag. Not only did this give us a tremendous view as we paraded into and around the stadium at the start of the ceremony, but it put us all on the front pages of newspapers and on your TV screens at home!!! Describing the feeling of walking out in front of a capacity Birds Nest stadium is impossible, but was the most tremendous rush imaginable.

My view coming into the stadium from the front of Team GB!

The ceremony itself was extremely well done, and the various 'acts' largely involved people with disabilities. The lighting of the torch was also inspired; a Chinese gold medallist from Athens hoisted himself, in his wheelchair, hundreds of metres up to the roof of the stadium to ignite the base of the torch.

The Paralympic Flame is lit

A perfect evening was rounded off with the most amazingly slick transfer of thousands of athletes and officials back to the Paralympic Village – it took only 50 minutes from the end of the ceremony to our arrival back in our apartments – beating previous efforts in Athens and Sydney by at least 2 hours! The whole experience was phenomenal, and I know did much to inspire our squad for their task ahead.

The last two days have been spent doing last minute practicing, including some time practicing on the stadium 'courts' where the elimination and medal matches will be held and plenty of resting. Tensions inevitably run high, and tempers are short; but this is something that we have discussed, have expected, and know how to deal with. As a staff member, a thick skin has been essential. The waiting period is probably the most difficult time for an athlete – and support staff to deal with.

Today was the '720' ranking round, where all archers shoot 72 arrows (maximum total score is 720), and are ranked for the elimination phase of competition on the basis of this score. The elimination rounds, from the 10^th to the 15^th, then involve 12 arrow shoot-offs against another archer. The higher you finish in the ranking round, the more favourable your draw (as effectively you draw first against a lower ranked archer). GB had a pretty good day today all in all – probably because we felt at home in the conditions – rain and relative coolness! We finished top in two categories, and in the process set two new World records. We had two other top 3 finishes, a 5^th and two 6th, and generally, performances met or exceeded expectations all round. So a good start, and hopefully we can build on it in the days to come, and finish the week with some medals!

The ranking round in full swing