Folkard aims to be a big noise at London 2012

As part of the 27-year-old’s preparations for next year’s Olympics, and in a bid to emulate the 2012 atmosphere, Folkard was forced to shoot in front of 200 screaming schoolchildren in May.

Folkard is no stranger to an Olympic Games having travelled to Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008 but welcomed the innovative measure brought to Archery GB’s HQ at Lilleshall.

She expects the practice to be repeated in order to move with the changing face of archery - indeed England complained about an overly raucous crowd at October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Folkard, along with Alison Williamson and Amy Oliver, narrowly missed out on team gold in India, with Williamson accusing the home support of poor sportsmanship.

However, Folkard believes a more vocal audience is not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think it was a collective idea from a discussion we had to see how we can shoot in practice as though it was a competition and it was really good preparation,” admitted Folkard.

“I think we will do it again before the year is out and a couple of times next year too. In Beijing a lot of the sports were actually sold out but not everyone turned up.

“I think they were sold to a lot of businesses and they didn’t bother but even there, when it wasn’t full, it was quite noisy.

“They were really enthusiastic and that is something that has been changing in the sport quite recently - the amount of noise from the crowd.

“Before in Athens, I would probably say it was more like a tennis tournament when everyone would be still and the atmosphere was quiet but it’s not like that any more and I think it’s a good thing.”

Archery is set to be one of the spectacles of the London 2012 Olympics with the Lord’s providing the setting for Folkard and co to shoot.

Folkard, who has just returned from South Dakota, having won the recurve ladies’ at the US National Target Championships, will get to sample the venue at the 2012 test event in October and admits doing so will be vital.

“We need to experience going from the practice venue at the Nursery Ground at Lord’s to the warm-up area before going into the main competition arena,” she added.

“You have got to make sure you know the wind differences between them.”

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