Archers take aim at title as Ogden hosts event

Arrows will be flying, bull's-eyes will be hit and world titles awarded as several hundred athletes from around the world arrive in Ogden next week for the Youth Archery World Championships.

And though participants will come to the competitions at Weber State and Lindquist Field from countries as far away as India, Australia, Croatia and Finland, one of the favorites will be from Logan.

Riley Whiting, a 14-year-old freshman-to-be at Logan High, is one of the best young archers in the world and, after setting a record last week at a national competition, hopes to see his aim hold true for at least another week or two.

"I'm definitely excited," Whiting said. "This is one of the biggest things I could be doing right now."

Whiting is a rising star in the archery world.

Shooting at the age of 4 and competing since he turned 7, Whiting has steadily moved up the rankings and won a gold medal in the Cadet Male Compound division at the Junior Olympic Archery Development tournament in Pennsylvania last week.

"That was really fun," Whiting said. "I think it was really good to go do that before the worlds."

The competition in Ogden will feature 16 classifications split between the Compound and Recurve bow fields and then again in the Junior (U-18) and Cadet (U-16) age groups.

Early qualifying rounds will seed the competitors as they prepare for the team and individual rounds. During the qualifying rounds, the archers will shoot 144 total arrows at four distances.

With so many archers hoping to advance, the fields at Weber State will be crowded with targets. After narrowing the fields from 64 to 32 and then 16, the competitions will move to Lindquist Field in downtown Ogden, where spectators will watch world championships be awarded on the final days of action.

Whiting, who scored a perfect 120 points during last week's elimination rounds, wants very badly to be part of those final rounds. He knows to do it he'll need nerves of steel to reach his goal.

"I've gotten better over the years," he said. "But nerves are definitely a factor. I've just got to keep my head in the game."

With a win or loss hanging on what might be as little as a centimeter, the slightest wobble or twitch can result in disaster for an archer.

But for the youngster from Cache Valley, the aim of competing at much larger meets is the ultimate target.