Uday Kadhu, a Baghdad car salesman, smiled as he talked about how he and his Iraqi team members were being treated like a circus act here at the World Archery Championships.‘‘Everyone is looking at us and they all want to talk to us. We don’t know why,’’ he said here yesterday.‘‘This is the first time the team is here and there is so much attention. I feel like a circus act. We like it.’’The city where terrorists crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center towers is a candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics and has made a point of welcoming the delegation from Iraq, now controlled by US military forces.‘‘People have asked us about the war, but we tell them that we are athletes and we are here to do a job and then leave,’’ said Kadhu, who is competing in the recurve bow section.Kadhu spoke in near perfect English, which he learned while attending school at the University of Missouri from 1980 to 1984 where his father was studying engineering.Kadhu said New Yorkers had made the 11-strong team consisting of four male and three female competitors, aged from 22 to 35, and four support members, feel ‘‘very welcome.’’He would not talk about the war and Iraq’s uncertainty leading up to the conflict, but said: ‘‘I lost friends - 10 to 15. It was a very terrible time for all Iraqis. Your country (Iraq) has been destroyed and nobody wants to see their country destroyed. It was a very difficult time.’’Kadhu pointed to a building about 100 yards away and said that was how close he was to the conflict. He said that his section of Baghdad was getting electricity and water only five hours a day: ‘‘I hope iraq comes back.’’Travis Cranley, an International Archery Federation spokesman, said that about 70 media attended the event and at least 60 wanted to talk only to the Iraqi team.‘‘It has been quite amazing really. It is always easy to find the Iraq team by the number of photographers behind them while they are shooting,’’ said Cranley.A record 580 archers from 80 countries are competing in the event.Kadhu said the team was happy with the way it had been welcomed by New Yorkers since arriving here last Friday.‘‘Everything is good. We are happy. People love us and treat us very well and we want to see New York after the tournament,’’ he said.
