Devin Permaul shares his experience at Pan Am Championships

Mar 28, 2021 Sports

Devin at 2021 Pan Am Qualifiers – Devin Permaul shooting at the Pan Am Championships in Monterrey, Mexico.

Kaieteur News – Archery Guyana is extremely proud of our lone Guyanese Archer in Monterrey, Mexico, flying our Golden Arrowhead, Devin Permaul. Secretary-General of Archery Guyana, Mrs. Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon has shared with pride the reports she received so far from colleagues across the Americas commenting positively on our Guyanese representative.
A release from Archery Guyana informed, ‘Devin Permaul is there wearing so many caps alone in Mexico…. An athlete, administrator, coach, motivator, PR person etc…. but we managed to have a quiet moment with Devin virtually and he was able to share with us his thoughts and views so far.
“A lot has been put into this trip, due to the current situation of Covid-19 restricting most travel. The Pan Am Championship was cancelled in the previous year but with safety protocols in place, they were able to proceed with the tournament this year. It’s been hard finding a reason to shoot with the idea the Olympics and other tournaments may have been cancelled, but this was my motivation to get back to it.
The tournament started with the Qualification round where after 72 arrows a 602 was shot. That score put me in a position of 30th.”
“It’s frustrating to shoot this score when I am capable of 640 -650’s outdoors. This is the most nervous I’ve ever felt in a competition but all I can do now is continue forward.”
The way this tournament is formatted, after you shoot qualifications there are two eliminations. A regular elimination bracket and one for the Olympic quota spot.
The following day, regular eliminations were held. In the 1/24 bracket, I was up against Chile ranked #35 Mesa Rivas Daniel and won 6-2. Proceeding to the next bracket of 1/16, I was up against #3 Arcila Santiago.
“I felt good going into this round as the nerves were starting to settle. We were neck and neck at 4-4 but #3 prevailed and pulled ahead at the end with a perfect 30. My confidence was definitely up after that competition knowing I could put up a fight.”
Friday the 26th was the elimination for the Olympic qualifier. He was up against #8 from Chile. That was the reason why most of the athletes participated in this tournament and Devin hoped to be one of those hopefuls. The night before, as we spoke, Devin was sitting there with a stretch band looking into the mirror to make sure he has his form down so as to shoot well. According to Devin, “Confidence plays such a huge role in this sport, and I want to be sure that I am ready”.
Devin noted despite his loss: “It finally felt like I was shooting scores what I was capable of, the only regret being not able to do that in the qualification and create a more favourable bracket. This moment has been ingrained into myself and I never want to feel this way again. It has emboldened me to do better. Viva la France! (The last tournament to earn a spot).”

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