Pressure? That's not pressure
RENO, Nev. Darren Collins said he didn't feel much pressure in the high-powered head-to-head matches of ESPN's Great Outdoor Games archery competition. He has experienced real pressure, in the form of a 12-foot-tall polar bear.
Defeating top archers like Randy Hendricks and Randy Ulmer on the way to a gold medal will give you some butterflies. But not like getting within 45 yards of a polar bear, armed with only a compound bow and half-dozen arrows.
Collins wanted to hunt a polar bear in an attempt to complete what is known at the North American "archery super slam." It includes 28 species of big game animals, ranging from wild turkeys and white-tailed deer to polar bears and desert bighorn sheep.
Collins went to a far northern area of Canada in May to pursue the polar bear. While riding a dogsled, he tracked a large male bear and eventually caught up to what may be a new world record.
"I got lucky," said Collins, a 37-year-old building contractor from Galena, Kan. "It was the first one I saw. Luck is better than skill a lot of times."
But you better be more than lucky when you approach a polar bear within bowhunting range. Collins' gold medal archery performance Friday and long list of successfully hunted big game species prove that he has the skill and nerve to back up good luck.
He estimated the bear stood 11- to 12-feet tall. In the field, it scored better than the current world record. But the animal will have to be scored in the U.S. later this year before it's official.
Collins used the same type Mathews bow to kill the polar bear that he did to win the archery gold medal.
"It was the same poundage, 67 pounds," Collins said. "With the energy and effectiveness of these modern bows, that's all you need."
Collins needs some more luck and skill to complete the super slam. He lacks a desert bighorn sheep. Only a few tags are issued each year for that species. At the relatively young age of 37, Collins has plenty of time to get lucky and draw a desert bighorn sheep tag.
How dry I am
Before the finals in the men's Log Rolling, J.R. Salzman, the five-time reigning world champion in the sport, took great care not to get into the water. When he dropped Travis Wells and Dan McDonough into the pond in successive matches, he remained atop his log, often at some difficulty, and piloted it back to the dock.
"It's definitely a pride thing," Salzman said. "To win a contest and stay dry is definitely something to brag about. I kind of did it last year in the world championships, but one of the only people ever to do it and never, ever get his feet wet was Phil Scott, and he's got like nine or 10 world titles."
Jamie Fischer finally managed to dunk Salzman, twice, on the way to Fischer's first Great Outdoor Games gold in the event.
Salzman stayed upright on the decisive point, raising his fists into the air in triumph, only to find that a fault in the match's final seconds had cost him the gold.
Triple threat
Jackie Caudle stands as the only triple threat in the Great Outdoor Games shooting sports.
Caudle, who won the Archery gold medal in 2000, competed in the Archery, Shotgun and Rifle events in Reno.
Several shooters compete in two of the shooting events, but a triple is rare. In fact, the 51-year-old Caudle, who is from Gadsden, Ala., got in the rifle event by default.
"I found out I was competing last week when somebody dropped out," said Caudle, who admitted he was least likely to excel with a rifle in his hands.
Caudle is primarily an archer, but he has earned his way into the master's class in sporting clays over the last year.
"I love to shoot sporting clays," Caudle said. "I have several buddies back home who like it too, and we have a big time shooting."
Caudle nearly reached the medal stand again in the archery event Friday, and he did some serious damage to the field in reaching the semifinals. Caudle was seeded seventh after the qualifying round. He came from behind on the Speed Challenge event to upset Donald Bishop in the first round Friday.
Bishop was seeded 10th, but was considered a possible medalist because he holds the record for the Speed Challenge, hitting the four targets in just over 15 seconds in competition earlier this year. Caudle edged Bishop 36 to 33.
In the second round, Caudle outscored No. 2 seed Rod White 15 to 6 on the Speed Challenge to win 33 to 30.
But Caudle's run ended in the semifinals, when he lost to eventual silver medalist Randy Ulmer, then lost a chance for the bronze medal to Randy Hendricks.
In the shotgun competition, Caudle drew last year's gold medalist, Robbie Purser, in the opening round and was eliminated.
However, as long as Caudle was shooting something, whether bow or shotgun or rifle, he was happy.
The fall guy
Shaw Grigsby, the Florida side of the winning Bass Fishing team with California's Gary Klein, had never used the deep finesse tactics popular on western impoundments like northern California's Folsom Lake, site of the event. On the other hand, Klein grew up there and gave his teammate a quick primer on how to use the diminutive drop shot rig that was a key to their win.
"It was a pretty neat deal for me, a guy used to fishing with heavier tackle in shallow water," said Grigsby.
"He did okay for his first time," mused his teacher. "But he was better at topwater fishing so that kept it balanced."
Guiness & gold
Tina Bosworth's mom, Bonnie Salzman, this week received an e-mail confirmation from the Guiness Book of World Records that the book is recognizing Bosworth's nine log rolling world titles as a record.
As of Saturday, when she won her fourth straight Great Outdoor Games gold in the event, Bosworth didn't have any details about the honor.
"It'll be cool when I'm 65," she said. "My grandkids will be like, 'Oh, granny!'"
Turkey gate
The anglers in the Bass Fishing event were provided lunch boxes filled with turkey and roast beef sandwiches for their day of fishing on Folsom Lake.
As some of the anglers dug into their boxes for a quick snack in between casts, those with turkey found the meat missing from the sandwich. As word spread after the first day of fishing that a turkey thief was on the loose, it was concluded after an informal investigation that Shaw Grigsby wore the mark of the guilt.
Prior to the launch on Saturday morning, two masked anglers were spotted by ESPN cameras prowling in the vicinity of the lunch boxes. Later that morning, Grigsby became the victim of his own demise. Opening his lunchbox for a bite to eat, the gold medal angler discovered two pieces of bread with nothing more than a mayonnaise filling.
As the event replayed on the Jumbotron during the championship weigh-in, the masked bandits were exposed to the spectator gallery. They were none other than silver medal winners Davy Hite and Clark Wendlandt.
"It was payback time," deadpanned Hite. "We knew it was Shaw all the time."
Fit to be tied
The beginning of the end for Lizzie Hoeschler with a Log Rolling bronze medal at stake was a fall she took when her shoe came untied. Mandy Erdmann had been down by a fall, but finished with three straight to take the best-of-five match.
"It sucks that my shoe came untied, that was just stupid of me," Hoeschler said. "And it definitely plays in your mind, especially when the announcer says, 'And look there! Lizzie's shoe is untied!'
"It was a stupid fall. I shouldn't have paid any attention to it and just kept the shoelace out of the way. But then you're trying to think about this long shoelace, not stepping on it."
Piscatorial road trip
The bass caught in Saturday's final round of the Bass Fishing event unknowingly took a road trip to write home about.
After the five Triton Boats were loaded on their trailers at Folsom Lake, they began the two-hour journey from Roseville, Calif., to the weigh-in venue in Reno, Nev.
The trip began at an elevation of 190 feet above sea level, peaked at 7,222 feet atop Donner Pass and ended at 5,500 feet in Reno. After their 15 seconds of fame in front of the spectators and in the eye of the ESPN cameras, the fish went back home to Folsom Lake, where they were released back into the fishery by officials with the California Department of Fish and Game.
Euro-rolling
Both the men and women's broze medalists in their respective Log Rolling events spent time this year training in Europe.
Mandy Erdmann, who is studying at St. Olaf College to become a nurse, spent five months studying abroad in Lancaster, England. There she spent time strength training, because she couldn't get back on a log until she returned home in late May.
Darren Hudson actually managed to roll for about three weeks, off the coast of Greece. He also spent time in Germany snowboarding, skiing and hiking.
High class
Jenny Atkinson took home a second straight Log Rolling silver medal, and if history holds, it will become a lesson for the students in her third-grade class on the benefits of hard work. She compares the practice it takes for her to run full-speed on a spinning, floating log to the practice it takes to learn to read.
A dirty trick, maybe, but it apparently works.
"My kids are just huge fans," she said.
The class is allowed to watch tapes of past Great Outdoor Games competitions, but only when the weather is too cruddy to go outside for recess. When the announcement comes over the intercom that recess is canceled, Atkinson said, her class actually cheers.
Aussie bait
In Australia, where Murray cod, a freshwater game fish, grow to over 100
pounds, you aren¹t going to get much attention with three- and four-pound
bass, like those weighed at Friday's bass fishing event.
"We use fish like that for bait," one Australian timber sports participant
said, while watching the weigh-in.
Aussies enjoy fishing. Much of it is concentrated on the coast involving
saltwater. Timber sports competitor Dale Ryan of New South Wales prefers freshwater, but he fishes for trout, not bass.
"I have an uncle from Scotland who taught several of us to fly fish and tie
flies," said Ryan. "My biggest fish is a 10-pound brown trout, caught on a
Kangaroo Coachman (fly pattern)."