August 03, 2018

Youth Festival: Teams take centre stage

Teams have been in action at Archery GB's 2018 Youth Festival - and there have been some spectacular results.

There are more than 160 athletes shooting at the festival at Lilleshall, which is part of the 2018 Youth Key Event Series. The aim is to give potential future stars the opportunity to compete in the international World Archery target format, including team and mixed team head to heads.

Cameron Donaldson, Alex Massey and Callum Platt took the recurve junior men's title, beating Will Maddison, Ryan Pinder and Connor Rides 5-3. There was a shoot off for bronze and it was Sam Hamon, Shane McCabe and Jalmar Verbraak who managed to gain the edge over Adam Harris, Alexander Harrison and Kieran Shirley. The recurve junior women's title was also decided in a shoot-off. Top seeds Emily Bryant, Lauryn Jewkes and Monique Pascall shot 19 to Bethany Evans, Tamara Mitchell and Rachael Smith's 17 to take gold. The bronze medal went to Brooklyn Ditchburn, Catherine Foreman and Monique Pascall.

Second seeds Jakob Barrett-Rees, Hayden Ledwick and Cillian Reid beat top ranked Riley Spencer-Nice, Thomas Susca and Austin Whitmarsh to gold in the recurve cadet category, winning 6-0. The bronze went to Sean Martin, Luke Stocks and Luke Tassie who beat Marco Costanza, Thomas Oakley and Daniel Thompson 6-2. Nicole Burdett, Megan Costall and Alyssia Tromans-Ansell beat Heather Hughes, Lauren Rawlings and Thea Rogers 5-3 to take the recurve women cadets title but there was a shoot-off for bronze. In the end top seeds Rhiannon Easton, Louisa Piper and Lucy Smith took it with a 28-26 win over Sophie Castle, Rhian Costall and Katie Tonkinson.

Top recurve cub seeds Isabelle Haslam, Samantha Roberts and Darragh Joyce fulfilled their early promise by winning gold. They beat Nathan Ferriday, William Liversedge and Maxwell Oakley 6-0. Heike Palmer, Jack Doherty and Ryan Leatham took the bronze medal with a 6-2 win over Archie Bromley and Joshua Smith.

Dillon Crow, Ciaron Peake and Ajay Scott beat top seeds Adam Carpenter, Liam Peake and Kai Thomas Prause 221-217 to take the compound youth men's title. The bronze medal went to Dan McGarry, Jake Walsh and Liam Peake who defeated Jacob Caine, Thomas Lane and Jay Saunderson 216-213.

Jenny Bryan, Maddison Codling and Sarah Moon won the compound youth women's title, beating Paige Jones, Rebecca Lennon and Sharon Murphy 211-201. Hallie Boulton, Ella Gibson and Holly Hunter beat Grace Barrett-Rees, Sophie Meyrick and Hannah Stocks to bronze, winning 209-199.

The mixed team competitions were split into two tiers.

In tier 1, recurve juniors Rachael Smith and Kieran Shirley beat Brooklyn Ditchburn and Will Maddison in a shoot-off to take the title. There was another shoot-off for bronze and Emily Bryant and Connor Rides just managed to edge out Monique Pascall and Shane McCabe.

In the T1 recurve cadet category Imogen Newby and James Woodgate beat Louisa Piper and Luke Tassie 5-1 to take gold while Hannah Rowley and Jakob Barrett-Rees beat Alyssia Tromans-Ansell and Austin Whitmarsh to bronze. T1 recurve cub gold went to top seeds Jack Doherty and Darragh Joyce who beat Nathan Ferriday in a shoot-off. Heike Palmer and Maxwell Oakley beat Archie Bromley and Ryan Leatham to bronze.

The T1 compound youth competition was won by Ella Gibson and Lewis Haslam who defeated Paige Jones and Kai Thomas-Prause 147-144. Rebecca Lennon and Matthew Wong beat Layla Annison and David Taylor to bronze.

In the tier 2 competitions, recurve cadets Eleanor Cole and Anna Perkins beat Jonathon Rides and Katie Tonkinson to the title in a shoot-off. Thomas Oakley and Lauren Rawlings saw off Cillian Reid and Aspen Salisbury's challenge for bronze. The compound T2 title went to Hallie Boulton and Holly Hunter who beat Grace Barrett-Rees and Thomas Lane 122-120. Hannah Stocks and Ciaron Peake beat Caroline Tebbs and Dillon Crow to bronze.

The action continues with individual finals today.

You can find out more about the festival here.

And you can follow the results as they happen here.

Picture: Malcolm Rees