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The renowned parade ground of Sambodromo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, came into the limelight once more, as it hosted its very first archery tournament in the 40th National Archery Championships.
Sambrodromo is quite popular across the globe for being the venue of the world-famous festival known as the ‘Rio Carnival’. Every year, it records a footfall of over 2 million people, where the air reverberates with the vigor of the Samba! However, the recent archery event has added a new flavor to Sambodromo and it can ideally be termed as a ‘trailer’ to the major archery match that is scheduled to take place during the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Let us take a glimpse of the interesting highlights of this amazing archery tournament, which occurred in the region of Sambodromo.
Major highlights of the archery tournament
At Sambodromo, as many as 32 targets had been fixed exactly at the passage, which is utilized as a parade spot for floaters, bands, and dancers. All these targets would have to be shot by 216 archers participating in this event.
The globally acclaimed 16-year-old Marcus Vinius D’Almeida, who is held in high esteem for winning three gold medals at the archery match in the 2014 South American Games, was amongst the several archers present. Though he is aged just 16, Almeida has already earned the 10th position in world ranking for archery.
On 29th October, 2014, Wednesday, Marcus assisted Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the President of the Organizing Committee for Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Eduardo Paes, the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro in discharging the first arrows of the event.
Other archers
Other archers included four from Amazon, who had moved to Manaus from their hometown. They were all young and their ages varied from 14 to 19. These athletes had been carefully selected in a development program, which tries molding talented sportsmen skilled in shooting bow-and-arrow into professional and unrivalled archers, particularly for the Olympics.
What the finest archers had to say at the event
Marcus Vinius D’Almeida and Sarah Nikitin, two famous archers, were simply overjoyed to be a part of the archery tournament at Sambodromo. Marcus, who had won the nickname ‘Neymar of Archery’ in Nanjing said, “I’ve been thinking about Rio 2016 since I joined the national team two years ago, and competing here at the Sambódromo only increases this.” He added that he had already imagined himself winning a gold medal in the final archery match at Sambodromo, which gave him goosebumps.
Like Marcus Almeida, Sarah Nikitin, ranked 29th in World Archery levels too marveled at the fact that Sambodromo was chosen for hosting its first archery tournament. The 25-year-old female archer felt that this would greatly encourage the inhabitants of Brazil to take an active interest in archery as a sport. She is confident that since Sambodromo attracts innumerable tourists, especially during the Rio Carnival, it would impart a high degree of conspicuousness to the archers.
Nikitin also added that the environment of Sambodromo would be more beneficial to archers and enable them to shoot more comfortably, as compared to the traditional open areas. The reason, according to her was that here the winds would blow either towards the front or backwards, instead of blowing sideways, which is a hindrance to shooting.
Dr. Ugur Erdener, member of the International Olympic Board and World Archery President, expressed his delight at the event. He said that Sambodromo was an honorable venue for Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. He went on to add that such a thrilling sports event would instill great interest in archery among the people of Rio de Janeiro.
Different kinds of group as well as individual archery events marked the 40th National Archery Championships of Brazil. The sporting events consisted of compound bows and recurve, and free entrance was granted to visitors. Finally, the event concluded on 1st November, 2014, Saturday.
Contributed by : archeryrangetexas.com
