Japon Okçuluğu : Kyudo

Ok Deyip Geçmeyin !

Türkçedeki okumak fiili ok kelimesinden gelir; şu bildiğimiz, yayla atılan ok'tan... Ok'la okumak arasında mutlaka anlamlı bir ilişki vardır. Büyük Selçuklular, mektupların başına hâkimiyet alâmeti olarak ok-yay işareti koyarlardı; tuğra belki de bu damgadan doğmuştur.
Okumak fiilinin aynı zamanda, çağırmak, davet etmek anlamı taşıdığını galiba artık sadece dilbilimciler biliyor. Hâlbuki benim çocukluğumda kapı kapı dolaşıp konu komşuyu düğüne çağıran kadınlara okuyucu denirdi. Göktürk alfabesinde de ok şeklindeki harf, "ok" sesi verir.

Dil meseleleri derindir ve rahmetli Şinasi Tekin Hoca gibi mütebahhir iştikakçıların işidir, bizim boyumuzu çok aşar. Şu günlerde Türk okçuluk kültürüyle ilgili iki önemli kitap okudum da, onun için takıldım okumak fiiline. Bu kitaplardan ilki: Türk Okçuluğu ve Sultan Mahmud'un Ok Günlüğü. Sevgili dostum M. Zeki Kuşoğlu, bu kitabı yazmasına vesile olan yazmayı, Söğütlüçeşme'de sadece cumartesi ve pazar günleri açılan hurdacılar çarşısında, sürekli alışveriş ettiği bir hurda kâğıt toplayıcısından satın almış. Birilerinin çöpe atıverdiği yazmanın ne olduğunu söylesem şaşıracaksınız: Sultan II. Mahmud'un ok günlüğü. Öyle ki, Kuşoğlu, hazırladığı kitaba "Çöpten Tarih Sofrasına" adını vermeyi bile düşünmüş.

II. Mahmud, III. Selim gibi okçuluğa çok meraklı ve İstanbul'da en fazla nişan taşına sahip olan padişahtır. Ömrü Devlet Arşivleri'nde geçmiş değerli bir uzman olan Necati Aktaş'ın sadeleştirerek yeni harflere aktardığı bu günlükte bu padişahın hangi tarihlerde kaç kez ve kaç gez (1 gez 66 cm.'dir) attığı kayıt altına alınmıştır.

Kuşoğlu'nun okçuluk tarihine ve kültürüne dair yazılmış bazı önemli metinlerle destekleyerek hazırladığı, Ötüken Neşriyat tarafından yayımlanan ve kapağı, cildi, iç düzeniyle göz dolduran kitap, kültür ve spor tarihimizin bir dönemine kuvvetli bir ışık düşürüyor. Hoş bir tesadüfle, aynı günlerde Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları da A. Şinasi Acar'ın İstanbul'un Son Nişan Taşları adlı kitabını yayımladı. Eskişehir'de yaşamasına rağmen İstanbul'daki nişan taşlarını, dolayısıyla Türk okçuluk tarihini ve kültürünü kendine mesele edinen Şinasi Bey'in eseri, hakikaten her türlü takdirin üstündedir.

Kitabının birinci bölümünde Türklerde okçuluğun önemi, yaylar ve özellikleri, yayın kurulması, yaylarda rastlanan beyitler, Evliya Çelebi'nin zikrettiği yaycılar ve okçular, oklar ve özellikleri, ok atmanın matematiği gibi konuları ele alan Şinasi Acar, "Okmeydanı ve Nişan Taşları" başlığını taşıyan ikinci bölümde sportif okçuluk, hedef okçuluğu ve menzil okçuluğu hakkında bilgi verdikten sonra kabza almak, menzil açmak, menzil almak gibi okçuluk terimleri üzerinde duruyor. Bu bölümde Okmeydanı'nın tarihçesini ve nasıl acımasızca yok edildiğini de öğreniyoruz. Şinasi Acar, ayrıca Okmeydanı'nda ve Okmeydanı dışında günümüze ulaşabilen nişan taşları hakkında da bilgi vererek kitabelerinin çeviriyazılarını kaydediyor.

Bazı semtlere Nişantaşı, Dikilitaş gibi isimlerin verilmesine yol açan bu taşların her birinin aynı zamanda birer sanat şaheseri olduğunu özellikle kaydetmek gerekir. Seçkin hattatlar tarafından yazılmış kitabelerle bezenen bu taşlar, sadece spor tarihimiz açısından değil, mermer işçiliği, hattatlık, hatta edebiyat tarihimiz açısından da büyük önem taşımaktadır.

M. Zeki Kuşoğlu ve Şinasi Acar gibi "deli"ler olmasaydı, kültürümüz büsbütün yok olacaktı. Onlara şükran borçluyuz.

Not: Fotoğraf, A. Şinasi Acar'ın kitabından alındı.
[DİPNOT]
Okmeydanı

Kasımpaşa-Hasköy kıyı şeridinin kuzeydoğusundaki sırtlarda yer alan Okmeydanı, Fatih'in yadigârı harika bir spor alanıydı ve mâhir okçuların rekorlarını gösteren nişan taşlarıyla bezeliydi. Bir vakıf arazisi olmasına rağmen Vakıflar tarafından göz yumulunca gecekonducular tarafından istila edilip mahvedilen bu meydan, Şinasi Acar'ın ifadesiyle, "eğer korunabilseydi, dünyada eşi olmayan 550 yıllık bir Açıkhava Müzesi olarak uluslararası uzun mesafe okçuluk yarışmalarının yapıldığı bir merkez haline getirilebilirdi".
Unutmadan: Türk hat sanatının kurucusu sayılan Şeyh Hamdullah, büyük bir okçu (kemankeş) ve Okmeydanı'nın ilk şeyhlerinden biriydi. Son büyük hattatlardan Hezarfen Necmeddin Okyay ise Okmeydanı'nın yok olmaması için büyük bir mücadele verdi, ama başaramadı.
19 Nisan 2007, Perşembe

- Beşir Ayvazoğlu,Zaman Gzts.
- Orjinal KAYNAK: http://www.zaman.com.tr/webapp-tr/yazar.do?yazino=529414

The Race to the Beijing Olympics!

The Race to the Beijing Olympics!
Leipzig – 12 July 2007

On Friday afternoon, the team events for the Recurve division will take place. This team event offers 24 places for men and 24 places for women. Additionally, 16 places for men and women will be attributed based on today’s individual results. Let’s see who will qualify for the Olympic Games.

Let’s first recap the rules of the Olympic qualifications:

Ø The eight highest ranked teams for both Recurve Men and Women (excluding China) will qualify for three individual places per team—a total of 24 places.
Ø The 16 top ranked individuals, from countries (Member Associations) other than those mentioned above, qualify for a place (total 16).
Ø All places are attributed to NOCs and not to individuals. There will be subsequent qualifiers early in 2008 to increase the number of archers to 64 men and 64 women. The host nation, China, automatically qualifies three places per gender for Beijing.
Let’s now run a simulation based on the individual results of today and assuming that the top teams in qualifications will win on Friday. Since China is in the top eight teams, we will also consider that a ninth team qualifies. Of course, this is only a simulation. Everything thing can change on Friday when the archers shoot the team matches!

Recurve Men

Going into the matches, the top nine teams are Korea, Great Britain, Italy, Chinese Taipei, PR China, Australia, Japan, Mexico and Canada. All of these countries would secure three places. It is worth nothing that, the Athens Olympic bronze medallist, Ukraine, is not in this list.

According to the individual results today, two archers from Russia, Ukraine, Malaysia and USA would qualify. One archer each from Sweden, Denmark and Iran are certain to qualify because they finished in the top 16. Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey, Romania and Belarus would also qualify.

Let’s take some scenarios for tomorrow:

Ø If the heavily favoured Korea is upset in the first round, three archers would still qualify based on the individual results. However archers from Turkey, Romania and Belarus would then no longer as individuals.

Ø If countries like Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Canada loses in the first round, two archers would still qualify but the list of individual qualified archers would change a lot.

Ø If countries like Italy or Chinese Taipei (silver medallist at the Olympic Games 2004) lose in the first round, no archers would qualify!

In the event of a tie in a team match, there is a 3 arrow tie-break. The ninth team in the ranking will be the one that has the highest score of the first round losing teams.

Recurve Women
The top nine teams of the qualifications are Korea, P.R. China, Poland, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Chinese Taipei, Japan and France. All these countries would secure three places.

According to the individual results today, Ukraine is sure to qualify for two places. Countries like Georgia, DPR Korea, Netherlands and India would qualify for two places each. Countries like the USA, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Denmark, Greece and Venezuela could qualify one archer each.

Let’s take some scenarios for tomorrow:

Ø If Korea and Poland are upset in the first round three archers would still qualify based on the individual results. France has the same chance if Korea and Poland don’t lose in the first round. However, if this is the case, archers from Venezuela, India, Greece and Denmark would no longer qualify.

Ø If countries like Russia, Italy or Japan lose in the first round two archers would probably still qualify.

Ø If countries like Chinese Taipei or Great Britain lose in the first round at least one archer would still qualify.

Tin the event of a tie in a team match, there is a 3- arrow tie-break. The ninth team in the ranking will be the one that has highest score of the first round qualifying teams.

Whatever the case may be, the best way to secure three Olympic places is to win the first round on Friday afternoon.

Didier Miéville
FITA Communication

Reference : http://www.archery.org/

Archery at Lord's: China v India v GB

Archery at Lord's: China v India v Great Britain, Monday 6th August

Date released: 7 July 2007

An international archery tournament is to be staged this summer at Lord's - the venue for the archery competition in the London 2012 Olympic Games - for the first time in the ground's 220 year history.
In another historic first, the contestants at Lord's will include teams from China.
This triangular tournament will take place on the morning of Monday 6th August and involve world-class men's and women's sides from Great Britain and India, as well as China.
Devised and organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Grand National Archery Society (GNAS), the competition will take place after the completion, the previous day, of the Meteksan Archery World Cup in Dover. As a result, the archers from the three nations competing at Lord's - which have a combined population of 2.4 billion - will be some of the world's best.
Announcing the tournament, MCC's Secretary & Chief Executive, Keith Bradshaw said: "I'm delighted that we will be staging this genuinely historic sporting contest. It will be particularly exciting to welcome Chinese competitors to Lord's for the first time."
He continued: "It's all part of our policy of increasing public interest in archery in the approach to 2012. We're also committed to giving British archers every opportunity to train and compete at Lord's in the run-up to the London Olympics, to provide them with the best possible chance of going for gold in the Games themselves."
GNAS's Alf Davies said: "Working together, MCC and GNAS have been developing this idea for many months. I'm delighted that we've now got the go-ahead from each of the three competing nations."
He added: "I am sure it will be a great thrill for each of the archers to take part in the first-ever archery contest at Lord's - one of the world's greatest sporting stages. It will also give them invaluable experience of competing at a ground which will host the Olympic archery competition in five years' time. Everyone at GNAS is looking forward to history, and new friends, being made at Lord's on Monday 6th August."
There will be free ground admission for this historic event, which has been warmly welcomed by both London 2012 and archery's international governing body - FITA.

Who will go to the Beijing Olympics?

Who will go to the Beijing Olympics?
Lausanne – 3 July 2007


One of the highlights of the 44th Outdoor Archery World Championships in Leipzig will be the qualifications for the Olympic Games. We have run a simulation based on the last World Cup event in Antalya.

A total of 40 places for Recurve Men and 40 places for Recurve Women at the Beijing Olympic Games will be determined in Leipzig. They will be allocated according to the following criteria:

* The eight higher ranked teams for both Recurve Men and Women (excluding China) will qualify three individual places—a total of 24 each.

* The 16 top ranked individuals, from other countries (NOCs) than mentioned above, qualify one place (total 16).

All places are attributed to NOCs and not to individuals. There will be subsequent qualifiers early in 2008 to increase the number of archers to 64 men and 64 women. The host nation, China, automatically qualifies three places per gender for the individual and team competitions.

The recent Antalya World Cup was the biggest ever with 330 archers. It was also one of the last tests before the World Championships in Leipzig and most of the top archers and top teams were there. Therefore, we have good data for analysis. However, a few good countries were missing in Antalya and there are more than 550 archers participating in the World Championships in Leipzig. There was a maximum of four participants per category in Antalya, and there will be only three in Leipzig. Thus, below is only a simulation about the qualifications to the Olympic Games and these are neither facts nor predictions.

- The World Cup 2007 in Antalya

Recurve Men
The most important way for a country to earn places for the Olympic Games is to be in top 8 or 9 teams at the World Championships (depending on if China is on the top 8).

In Antalya, the top 9 teams were Russia, Netherlands, Ukraine, Malaysia, China, Italy, Korea, India and USA.

If we compare this to the last Olympic Games in Athens, Japan, France, Sweden, Mexico, Chinese Taipei and Australia would be missing. However, the last two, Chinese Taipei and Australia did not compete in Antalya. Malaysia would be a new-comer. Other contenders like Great Britain, Germany, Belarus or Turkey would also miss the Games.

Of course, these teams could still make it by qualifying three individuals, either in Leipzig or during the remaining qualifying event in 2008.

For instance, based on Antalya, the simulation shows that Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Germany and Great Britain would qualify two individuals. Countries like Poland, France, Bulgaria, Norway, Slovenia and Denmark would qualify one individual.

The bottom line is that these countries will have had to work hard since Antalya in order to steal the spots of the others.

Recurve Women
Looking at the results of Antalya, the top 8 countries were Korea, Italy, China, France, Russia, Turkey, Poland and Georgia. Great Britain and Mexico were tied for 9th place!

If we compare this to the Athens Games, a lot of countries would be missing: Germany, Greece, Ukraine, India, USA, Japan, Australia and Chinese Taipei (these last two didn’t compete in Antalya). The surprising new-comer would be Georgia.

The USA would actually be a lucky loser, because three archers would have qualified individually and the USA would be allowed to field a team in Beijing. Germany, Ukraine and Japan would qualify two individuals. Belarus, Colombia, India, Malaysia, Moldova and Netherlands would earn one berth.

All may be different in Leipzig but some countries will definitely enter the World Championships with a bit more confidence based on their recent results on the World Cup stages.

In Leipzig, only the top 16 teams of the qualifications will be allowed to compete in match play and therefore have a chance to reach the top 8 or 9 ranks. In other words, the race to Beijing starts Sunday!

Didier Miéville
FITA Communication

* Original Source : http://www.archery.org/