The champions of the second stage of the National Tour were named at Barnsley Archery Club
The second stage of the 2023 National Tour was held this weekend at Barnsley Archery Club. In years gone by at this host venue, records have been claimed, and this year was no exception. In 2021, it was Adam Ravenscroft who broke the UK WA 50m record with 716. This time on the Tier 2+ event, Ella Gibson broke the unofficial World record for the compound women's double WA 50m with 1422. Monty Orton also came home with a record, shooting the unofficial UK recurve men's under 21 double 70m record with 1338.
On Sunday for the National Tour stage day, Ella continued this impressive level of shooting, scoring 712 in the ranking round to equal her own European record. The top seed in the compound men was Kai Thomas-Prause with 707. For the recurves, Bryony Pitman took the women’s first place with 651, and for the men Monty Orton shot a 665. On the barebow line, Sarah Hubbard shot a 594 for the women, and Wilco van Kleef-Bolton shot a 605 for the men. Overall, an impressive nine compound athletes shot over 700 points, including seven men and two women.
The head-to-heads in the afternoon also showcased some world-class shooting. Ella Gibson kept her top spot from the morning, shooting a perfect 150 in the compound women’s gold final against Sarah Prieels’ 145. Layla Annison took the bronze with 145-142 over Jersey’s Lucy O’Sullivan.
Ella said: "This weekend was super important to me. I shot a 711 and another 711 yesterday for a world record, and then a 712 this morning which equals my own European record. And finishing the day with a 150 to win gold was just the cherry on top."
In the compound men’s gold final, 18th ranked Nathan MacQueen and Chris White tied on a 143 and both shot a 10 in the shoot-off. After a very close measure, Nathan was deemed the winner. Neil Bridgewater won over Adam Ravenscroft by one point for the bronze medal, 147-146.
World ranked number 1 recurve woman Penny Healey is still undefeated this season. She defeated teammate and world number 4 Bryony Pitman for the gold in a shoot-off where her 9 was slightly closer than Bryony’s 9. For the bronze, 12th seed Megan Haver’s beat 3rd seed Sophie Meering 7-3.
For the recurve men’s gold medal, 15th seed Sum Hin Moses Cheung defeated top seed Monty Orton with a clean 6-0 win. In the bronze, the shoot-off between Michael Judd and James Woodgate saw Judd take the win with a 10 to James’ 7.
Moses said: "In the head to heads, I handled the wind and had good sighting. Just attack the ten, that's it."
Barebow women seed 1, Sarah Hubbard, won the gold final 7 points to 1 over 2nd seed Nadine Parker. The bronze went to Helen Brown who defeated Kim Doherty 7-3.
Wilco van Kleef-Bolton narrowly missed out on his second stage win this year, as 2nd seed Mark Turner beat him 6-4 for the gold. In the bronze final, 6th ranked Thomas Williams defeated 4th ranked Trevor Carr 7-3.
All scores and rankings from this weekend can be found on Ianseo.
The third stage of the 2023 National Tour will be held at Lilleshall at the UK Masters weekend on 24-25 June.
We’d like to thank our brilliant sponsors: Truball/Axcel, Hoyt, WiaWis, Darton, Easton, Blackeagle, AAE, Mybo, Reign Bowstrings.
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