Wind, rain, medals and fun at the British Target Championships 2019!
Day 1
"The weather was inevitably the talking point of the day and for most people in a negative way. But for me today was the type of day I enjoy. Every end, if not every arrow, presents a different challenge. Not just deciding where to aim each arrow and deciding when is best to shoot, but most importantly to physically shoot a good shot by remaining relaxed and yet strong by working with the wind allowing it to gently move me so I could complete the shot with ease.
Of course I didn't achieve the challenge in every shot but I had fun trying. I am really pleased with my score and would be pleased with it on a calm day.", explained Naomi Folkard, who qualified first in the recurve women for Saturday.
The competition was called to stop after 36 arrows and one round of eliminations due to the very poor weather conditions. Most archers on the field agreed with this decision, for safety reason, Domagoj Buden put on social media that it was a good decision to stop at half way and not proceed for the full WA 720.
Nathan MacQueen commented, "I went into today knowing I had to keep things simple and stick to my one shot that I've been working all year, it seemed to work. I got lucky on a few shots but I'll take it happy to qualify first especially with the talent here". Macqueen qualified first for the 36 arrow round ahead of James Mason after shoot one more X.
The women compound top qualifier Izzy Carpenter told us, Â"we had some challenging weather to get through today, however I'm really happy that I managed to persevere by just shooting my shot. I enjoy shooting WA 1440s so I'm definitely looking forward to the shoot tomorrow. It would be great to rank well again and hopefully podium overall.”
Day 2
After an eventful first day, the second day seemed pretty tame in comparison. The full WA 1440 was shot without any major issues, and the British Target Champions were crowned!
After an enjoyably windy Saturday, Naomi Folkard shot a 1341 with 349 points at 30 metres, with Bryony Pitman in second and Sarah Bettles in third. All three have recently got back from the Tokyo Test Event and the World Championships where they recently won the full Olympic quota spaces for next year.
Alex Wise, the youngest of the GB recurve men's team for 2019 won the Champion title with Fivics shooter Tom Hall in second place and Ryan Pinder in third, who will be representing GB at the World Youth Championships later this month in Madrid.
The compound medalists were James Mason in first place, Matthew Wong in second and Adam Ravenscroft in third. Adam recently came back from representing Team GB at the European Games where compound made its debut at the Games.
Susan Corless won the compound women title with her Prime, with Ella Gibson in second and Bayley Sargeant in third. All three of the compound women have represented GB at World Cups this year, with Ella Gibson bringing home a gold medal in the mixed team and Susan and Ella bring home the silver for the women's team.
Sheila Hudson has retained her title as the Longbow Women's Champion after taking first place on both Saturday and Sunday, with Sophie Twigg taking second and Michelle Szulc in third. The Longbow men saw a new Champion from last year with Martin Bale taking the title, Cliff Gadd in second and Martin Jordan in third.
The Barebow division didn't disappoint with new Champions for this year as well! Glenn Studholme and Karen Atkins walked away with the new design gold medals with Brett Stringer and Karen Lott in second and Mark Turner and youth archer Amelia Chumber in third.
For full results please see here:
