In Shanghai, in the bustling and noisy financial city with many landmarks, the Archery World Cup turned Lujiazui’s skyline into a competition background in the central green space covered by green trees and birds flying fish, charming and novel.
Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, May 12th issue: five years and ten years — two off-site stories of Archery World Cup Shanghai station
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Yuxu DONGWON
on May 12th, the 7-Day 2019 Archery World Cup Shanghai stood in the central green space of Lujiazui, and the gold medals of different projects also fell to each other. Although the competition is exciting, the story outside the stadium is more interesting. The indissoluble bond between Shanghai and archery can be seen from it.
Tell the story of ten years first. Ten years ago, in 2009, a little boy named Xu Zhiwei participated in the “2009 Archery World Cup (Shanghai station) citizen experience activity” under the leadership of a coach “. At the age of 12, he was not much taller than the bow in his hand. Xu Zhiwei, who entered the Pudong archery training team in 2008, was very excited to watch the competition of the world’s top arrows on the spot for the first time and experience it in a professional competition venue for the first time.
Zhou Ping, a junior sports school, said to Xu Zhiwei, “What’s so exciting about this? When you enter the national team and compete with your idol in the international arena in the future, it’s not too late to be excited and proud.” The Speaker had no intention, and the listener had the heart. This sentence had some words of “radical method”, which rooted in Xu Zhiwei’s heart.
With his archery talent and hard training, Xu Zhiwei “upgraded” all the way: he won not only two consecutive gold medals in the Shanghai games, but also several gold medals in the National Youth Championships, he won the gold medal of the mixed group in the 2015 National Archery Championship and entered the Archery national team.
Time flies, the once young little arrow has now become a famous arrow with a hundred steps through Yang. In the competition of medellyn station in the Archery World Cup in April this year, Xu Zhiwei met his idol, the reflex bow American general, Brady Ellison, and took a group photo with him on the court.
Xu Zhiwei sent the photo of the group photo to his enlightenment coach Zhou Ping, telling the teacher, “Once you guided my goal, it has been achieved today, thank you!”, Coach Zhou was happy and moved.
Ten years ago, a little Shanghai boy planted the seeds of hard work in his heart because of the coach’s encouragement; Ten years later, the little boy realized his dream and became a top archery athlete, leave a good story. The footnote of this “ten years” story is hard work, dream and moving.
The five-year story is about Shanghai. The sub-station match of Archery World Cup is in the form of “3+1”, that is, three sub-stations plus one finals. The sub-station match is usually in Asia, Europe and America. In 2006, the Asian subrace of the Archery World Cup was held in Shanghai, but two years later, the right to host the Asian subrace was won by South Korea, an archery power. It was not until 2009 that this event returned to China and then to Pudong.
“The International Federation of arrows attaches great importance to the sub-station competition and hopes to expand the popularity and influence of archery, a relatively small sport, through the sub-station competition. Therefore, it has high requirements for the host city, including the level of the national team, the environment and service guarantee of the competition, the foundation of the local masses, the promotion of archery in the local area, etc.” Guo Bei, vice chairman of China Archery Association and president of Shanghai Archery Association, told the reporter, “the International Federation of arrows inspects the host city every year, and the holding contract is usually signed every three years, sometimes there is a situation of changing once a year. But this year, the head of the International Federation of arrows offered to sign a five-year “long contract” directly with Shanghai, which is a side reflection of Shanghai’s achievements and influence in promoting archery in recent years.”
International Federation of arrows has been committed to building “landscape sports” in cities in recent years to enhance their attractiveness. As a top event under the International Federation of arrows, many world landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, have become the background of the Archery World Cup. In Shanghai, in the bustling and noisy financial city with many landmarks, the Archery World Cup turned Lujiazui’s skyline into a competition background in the central green space covered by green trees and birds flying fish, charming and novel.
The Archery World Cup has been held for 11 consecutive years. Shanghai sports has continuously upgraded its internationalization, specialization and management ability, which has also driven the rapid development of archery in Shanghai and even in China. Ten years ago, there were only one or two archery hall in Shanghai, and now there are 25 archery clubs in Shanghai. The number of people participating in archery all the year round has also increased from more than 100 people before to nearly 10,000 people today.
There are not only many venues, but also more and more archery events for amateurs. The content of the events is gradually enriched, and the interaction with citizens is continuously enhanced. Shanghai Archery Association will also carry out coach training courses every year, and at the same time build a platform to connect folk competitions with world competitions, and grassroots athletes and international masters will have the opportunity to compete together, thus comprehensively promoting the improvement of archery level of Shanghai masses.
The Five Year Engagement, behind the continuous efforts of Shanghai to develop archery, also let the world see that archery is showing vigorous vitality in Shanghai.
The stories of five years and ten years are off-site highlights and touching notes. The spread of TIME witnessed not only the growth of young arrows, but also the development of Shanghai, and the continuous progress of Chinese archery.