The National Tour continues this weekend at Bowmen of Glen for the third instalment.
With just two Stages left of the National Tour 2021, Bowmen of Glen hosted the third Stage.
What was most likely the hottest day of the year so far, compound Saturday did not disappoint. The sun-filled qualification round saw Adam Ravenscroft top the men's category with a 708, and for the women, Ella Gibson ranked first with a new UK record of 706.
The final four men standing by the afternoon were Adam Ravenscroft, Domagoj Buden, James Mason, and Adam Carpenter.
In the first of the semi-finals, Carpenter and Ravenscroft had a well-fought match. But, it was Ravenscroft who took the win with a 148 to Carpenter's 144 to go to the gold. The match between Buden and Mason was also almost identical with Buden winning with a 148 to Mason's 144.
Mason and Carpenter met once again in the bronze medal match, as they did at the previous stage at Surrey. It was Mason who took the bronze, 146-144. Similarly, for Buden and Ravenscroft, they came up against each other in another consecutive gold match. However, this time it was Ravenscroft who was able to take the top spot with only one point in it, 147-146.
On the women's side, the final four going into the semi-finals were Ella Gibson, Layla Annison, Susan Corless, and Sarah Prieels.
For Gibson and Prieels, their match was very tightly fought the whole way through, but in the end, it was Gibson who took the extra point, 145-144, to make it to the gold. Annison and Corless were neck and neck, shooting 142 apiece to take it to a shoot-off.
Unfortunately, Annison's ten was n0t enough to beat Corless's X to be able to compete for the gold. In the bronze final, Annison dominated the match, taking the win from Prieels with 144 points to Prieels's 138.
The pressure was high for Gibson going into this gold medal match in a bid to keep her winning streak going, and in the end she was successful. She took the match from Corless, 147-142, to earn her third consecutive National Tour stage win.
On an equally challenging day weather-wise, recurve Sunday was host to some very impressive shooting. After the morning qualification, Stevie Kent was first in the men's with 661, and for the women it was Jaspreet Sagoo who took the top spot with 659.
The recurve men who had made it to the final four were Michael Judd, Keith Harding, Jacob Reid, and Conor Hall. The semi-finals saw Judd win against Reid, 6-4, to take him to the gold match. Between Hall and Harding, it was Harding who was also successful in making it to the gold match with 6 points to Hall's 4.
In the bronze finals, Hall stepped up his game when he faced Reid to take the match 6-2. In the bid for gold, neither Harding or Judd backed down. The archers took their match to a shoot off arrow. It was Harding who was able to keep his nerve in order to shoot the gold medal winning arrow, an X to Judd's 8.
For the women, the last four archers were Penny Healey, Hannah Rowley, Jaspreet Sagoo, and Ffion Edgeley. In the first of the semi-finals, Sagoo and Healey fought it out all the way to yet another shoot off.
Nerves got the better of the archers as they both shot an 8. However, Healey's arrow was closer and sent her to the gold final. For the other of the semi-finals, Rowley dominated the match, winning Edgeley 6 points to none.
Sagoo brought her A game in the bronze final. She was able to gain 6 straight points over Edgeley to take the medal. In the gold final, Healey only allowed one point to go in Rowley's favour before taking the match and the title 7 points to 1.
For full results, see here.
