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Hey Joe, Hendrix uses new attitude to take archery gold
By Steve Wright
Special to GOG
|  | | Randy Hendrix came back from a poor showing in 2000 to win the archery event. |
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — When Randy Hendrix of Clemons, N.C., finished 12th among 16 competitors in last year's archery competition at the ESPN Great Outdoor Games here, he left disappointed and determined to do something about it.
A bout with tennis elbow kept him from practicing more, so Hendrix just practiced smarter. It paid off with the gold medal in Saturday's archery finals during Day 3 of the GO Games.
"It made me determined to try a little harder," Hendrix said of his poor finish a year ago. "I've been busy with work and I decided to just concentrate on this and Buckmaster's this year.
"I wasn't going somewhere different every weekend, like a lot of these guys. It was better for me to stay home and work for this event."
Hendrix defeated Dave Cousins of West Jordan, Utah, 54-49, for the gold medal. Going into the last of the six archery stations, Hendrix held a four-point lead.
"If I wanted to win, I knew I had to lay it all out, and I got burned," Cousins said of his five point performance at the last station.
The bronze medal went to Rod White of Sparta, Wis. The winner of gold and bronze Olympic medals was most disappointed. White defeated last year's silver medalist, Kelly Ward of Greensboro, N.C., in the first round and last year's semifinalist Shannon Caudle of Gadsden, Ala., in the second round.
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If you don't have your head clear, you're not going to win the ESPN Games. You might get away with that at some competitions, but not this one. ” |
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— Bronze medalist Rod White |
White seemed to have a seven-point lead after two stations in his semifinal match against Cousins, who was late shooting the second target at station two when his microphone came loose from his shirt and the cord tangled in his bow.
After a ruling, however, it was determined both men could re-shoot the target. White declined, but Cousins gained four points by re-shooting. White, obviously flustered, zeroed at station three and had too much ground to make up after that.
"That really put me out of my game," said White, who still posted the best average score of the four semifinalists (69.25), despite shooting a 51 against Cousins.
"If you don't have your head clear, you're not going to win the ESPN Games. You might get away with that at some competitions, but not this one."
White defeated Randy Ulmer of Cave Creek, Ariz., 70-69, for third place. Ulmer posted the second best average score of the semifinalists, 67.27.
But scoring averages mean nothing in this archery contest. It's all about head-to-head matchups. White was still shaking his head about the semifinal loss.
"For me, it's kind of like first or nothing," White said. "This is a tough one for me to swallow."
Last year's gold medalist, Jackie Caudle of Gadsden, Ala., who is Shannon's father, earned the top seed in Friday's qualifying round but lost his first round match Saturday.
In fact, after four first round matches, all three of last year's medal winners had been eliminated.
"That's just an example of how level this competition is," Ward said. "On any given day, any one of us could win it."
And on this given day, the winner was Randy Hendrix.
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