23 November 2007 - Herculean task to build Archery structures on the lake!

Herculean task to build Archery structures on the lake! Dubai – 23 November 2007   Fifty tones of equipment! This is what it took to build the two shooting platforms for this year’s Archery World Cup Final in Dubai. It is the first time this kind of construction has ever been done in the lake of the Jumeirah Madinat Resort and the first time archers will shoot on water. Today the athletes could test the venue facilities during official practice and rehearsal. The competition will be held tomorrow between 12.30 pm and 16.30 pm.   The 20 workers from ESP, an event company led by Karl McQueen and Andrew McLeod started on Tuesday morning and finished this morning. The construction of the two 70-metre long platforms on which the athletes will be shooting from lasted almost three days. It will then take 1.5 day to dissemble the construction as of Saturday night. Every single piece of the fifty tones of equipment was carried by hand! Indeed, there was no possibility for the truck to come close to the venue.   The water of the lake is 1.4 meters deep. As the water comes from the sea, the lake is full of fish and jellyfish! This made it even more challenging for the workers. The pumping system of the lake even had to be switched off to allow the workers to work from inside the water.   The bottom of the lake is made up of concrete, so the engineers created some scaffolds. Moreover, it took over 200 stage decks and over 700 hundred meter square of carpet to cover the two platforms.   A protective wall of 12m long and 6m high was also build behind the targets.   This promises to make of this unique Archery event a spectacular show!   Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication