What would be a meltdown? I would expect that an asteroid hitting the earth is the most likely cause for my concept of immortal data to be wrong, followed by a large enough exchange of nuclear devices to trigger a worldwide blanketing of EMP sufficient to terminate all electronic interchange and put us back into the bronze age overnight. We'd be far too busy rubbing two sticks together during the nuclear winter to worry about our inability to continue surfing. An even more distant third possible reason is the unleashing of a tailored bacteria that digests the stuff that makes up transistors or CPUs. Since the asteroid event is fairly small odds, making the other two possibilities even less possible, I'm back to the reason for this article: I wish to put name to archer for as many photographs on the USA Archery Records website photo albums as possible. Once named, the photo page will be searchable by all the main internet search engines for essentially all times. If you know of yourself appearing in a photo on the most recent Target Championships for example, please send me an brief email note with your name AND the URL (address) for that page. I will in turn search that page out in my development copy and update it on the web to properly reflect your name "fer all time".

It will help if you describe which person in a photo you are when there is more than one archer (and if you know the other guy/girl help me out with their name as well!). I am also willing to go to any other photo on either the USA Archery Records website or even (egad) the 13,000+ photos on the Texas State Archery Photo department and likewise update them. So if you have a favorite photo of yourself, let me know and I'll put name to face. Thanks.

Gary Holstein and I took many thousands of photographs of the archers, the judges, and even the pets in attendance. All the "good" photos have been published to the USA Archery Records Website and the rest consigned to the bit bucket. In fact, the photos were published in most cases on the very same day that they were taken during the tournament, which put a severe load on the hotel's internet connection. I'm sure that the rest of the hotel's guests were forced to put up with slowwwww surfing while I clogged the bandwidth with the pixels of all 2700+ photos. Well, actually, there were three times that many uploaded: the original HIGH resolution image, the easy-to-view in your browser downsized version, and the tiny thumbnail size that gets displayed in the thumbnail page.

So all of the photos are displayed for your viewing pleasure, and you will find that you can actually download a picture suitable for printing an 8 x 10 glossy of you or your best friend! To get access to that photo just look for the very small download icon (a downward arrow pointing to a tiny picture of a square that emulates your computer: ). It is just below the bottom right corner of the photo, to the right of the file name on every photo page.
There have been 174 record claims from the event as of this writing - 84 were "National" records (those which can only be set at a National Championship) and 90 National Star FITA records which are set during any event recognized by FITA as a Star event (which our National Target Championship always is).

Incidentally, a score shot by an American during the course of an event in another country can be claimed as an American National Star FITA record provided it is equal to (a tie record) or higher than the existing US Star FITA record and the proper claim form process is followed.

Our National Target Championship is always registered with FITA as a Star event so that any score can be considered for world record status as well as US national Star FITA record status. I risk over-explaining things because I have had a lot of archers contact me, confused about their claim for either a National or a (national) Star FITA record.

One last note: while it is true that you can shoot a STAR FITA record at the National Target event, you can NEVER shoot a National (Target) record at any tournament except the National Target event held by the USA Archery once each year, usually at the end of the summer season. The National Target Championship allows for the setting of both Star FITA and National records, and it is possible (and it often so happens) that a National Record is broken but not the
corresponding national Star FITA record. This makes sense, because there are many more opportunities each outdoor season to shoot a Star FITA record score. There is only once chance/tournament per year where you get a shot (pardon the pun!) at a National (target) record. Make sense? Good. Also, the number of "x"s scored are not counted except when a perfect numerical score has been reached - for example, a 36 arrow round has a perfect score of 360. Once that becomes the record then the only way to differentiate, to recognize a new level of excellence, is by the number of Xs shot. Frankly, no one has explained to me what to do when someone shoots 360 with 36 Xs, but we'll figure out something when that happens I am sure. As always, I'll just ask Jane Johnson what to do - she has helped me constantly with setting up the website properly.

And now, here is the listing of the 90 Star FITA records set anew this year during the 123rd National Target Championships:

	Division	Bow	Gender	Archer	Distance	RoundType	Score	Xs
Star FITA	AR Open	Compound	Men	Eric C. Bennett	90 meters	Double	635
					90 meters	Single	323
					FITA	Single	1339
				Joseph A. Bailey	30 meters	Double	706
					50 meters	Double	669
					FITA	Double	2658
					FITA	Single	1332
	AR1	Compound	Men	Jeff Fabry	30 meters	Double	713
					30 meters	Single	359
					50 meters	Double	678
					50 meters	Single	340
					60 meters	Double	674
					60 meters	Single	338
					70 meters	Double	665
					70 meters	Single	335
					FITA	Double	2730
	AR2	Recurve	Men	Kevin Stone	30 meters	Single	340
					90 meters	Single	276
				Russell Wolfe	50 meters	Double	601
					50 meters	Single	307
	AR3	Recurve	Men	Steve Bosson	30 meters	Double	642
					30 meters	Single	326
					50 meters	Double	557
					50 meters	Single	279
					70 meters	Double	515
					90 meters	Double	432
					90 meters	Single	255
					FITA	Double	2146
					FITA	Single	1117
	Bowman	Compound	Men	Aaron DeJong	20 meters	Double	707
					20 meters	Single	355
					25 meters(80cm)	Double	694
					25 meters(80cm)	Single	344
					25meters(122cm)	Double	710
					25meters(122cm)	Single	356
					30 meters	Double	702
					30 meters	Single	351
					FITA	Double	2813
					FITA	Single	1407
	Cadet	Compound	Women	Paige Pearce	50 meters	Double	696
					50 meters	Single	350
					60 meters	Double	682
					60 meters	Single	346
					FITA	Double	2768
					FITA	Single	1391
	Cub	Compound	Men	Alexander Sahi	20 meters	Single	360	17
					20 meters	Single	360	17
					30 meters	Single	349
					30 meters	Single	354
					40 meters	Single	354
			Women	Hunter Jackson	20 meters	Double	719
					20 meters	Single	360	28
					30 meters	Double	696
					30 meters	Single	355
					40 meters	Double	704
					40 meters	Single	354
					50 meters	Double	692
					50 meters	Single	349
					FITA	Double	2811