The atmosphere on day one of the Combined National Indoor Championships at Stoneleigh was electric. Established stars savoured victory as new prospects gave us a glimpse of a very promising future for British archery.
Seventeen-year-old Jacob Reid overcame illness to beat Tom Hall to the men's recurve Back to Back title by a single point. Â"I've been ill with quite a bad cough, cold and infection over the past week,” he said. Â"Yesterday I was debating whether I should come but I managed to get here and it's been a really good day. I'm really happy to win this, it's such a good competition.” Third place went to Luxembourg archer Pit Klein.
The women's title went to Olympian Naomi Folkard. Â"It's been a long and difficult day,” she said, Â"but I'm really happy with the result.” She beat Sarah Bettles to take the 2018 title with third place going to 15-year-old Louisa Piper.
Adam Ravenscroft took the men's compound title with a two-point win over 18-year-old Kai Thomas-Prause. Â"I'm ecstatic,” said Adam. Â"In that finals match I didn't think I had shot that well but on the day I managed to get them into the middle and bad shots come to everyone, right?” Third spot went to Croatia's Domagoj Buden.
The 2018 compound women's title went to Edinburgh University's Sarah Prieels, who beat 16-year-old Layla Annison by a single point. She said: Â"I struggled this afternoon. I didn't shoot very well but I'm happy to go home with a win.” Third place went to another Edinburgh University archer, Hope Greenwood.
You can find a complete breakdown of all the Back-to-Back matches here.
More than 280 juniors from 131 clubs competed in the Junior National Indoor Championships which, for the first time, was supported by Official Youth Tournament Partners Wales Archery. Find out more about this exciting new partnership here.
There was no shortage of drama. England won a hard-fought Home Nations title, beating Wales into second, Scotland into third and the two-person Northern Ireland team into fourth. The regional recurve team result was even closer. Southern Counties took it with a total of 2,299 points - one more than West Midlands. Northern Counties took third place.
In the recurve under 18s, James Woodgate beat Jacob Reid by two points to take the title while Rachel Moon finished just ahead of Nicole Burdett. Hayden Ledwick and Heather Hughes took bronze. Thomas Susca edged Riley Spencer-Nice out in the under 16s category with Imogen Newby beating Lauren Rawlings to the title. Austin Whitmarsh and Shauna Punjabi claimed the third spots.
In the under-14s, Ben Weston took the men's title, ahead of Ryan Leatham and Darragh Joyce. Penny Healey took women's gold but both Meghan Robertson and Ella Clampin finished on 535 points. The medals had to be decided on the number of golds - and that gave Meghan silver. The under 12s titles went to Jonathan Ralston and Megan Havers with silver for Maxwell Oakley and Eleanor Stott and bronze for Samuel Gulvin and Anna Blythe.
This year's compound under 18s champions are Matthew Wong and Sophie Meyrick. Men's silver went to Dillon Crow - but the women's result was tied. Grace Chappell and Holly Clifford, both members of Deer Park Archers, scored 577 points from 60 hits and 37 golds - so shared the honours. Adam Carpenter won men's bronze. The under 16s men's title was also tied with Lewis Haslam and Ajay Scott sharing the title and James Tocher in third place. Women's honours went to Jenny Bryan, ahead of Chloe A'Bear and Rosemary Preece.
This year's under 14s champions are Dru Ridding and Sinead Byrne with silver medals for Alex Parker and Hallie Boulton and bronze for Oliver Robinson and Matilda Craven. The top three under 12s men were Alfi Ridding, Ioan Rees and Ryan Faulkner while women's honours went to Anya Annison, Chloe Scott and Jessica Pollitt.
In the longbow categories, our top archers were:
Under 18s: Sophie Morrison and Mai Wilkinson.
Under 16s: William Thomas, Reece Attree. Rosie Elliott, Lara Green.
Under 14s: Alexandra Lockett, Molly Joyce, Amethyst Chopping.
Taking the barebow honours were:
Under 18s: Harry Stew, Joseph Warner. Becky Chilcott, Imogen Colenutt, Abbie Dawson.
Under 16s: Houdeyfa Ajraou, Sipahl Selim, Andrew Mead. Phoebe Rose, Sophie Martyn, Patricia Irimie.
Under 14s: Zeyd Ajraou, James Walker-Mathews. Amelia Thomas, Emily Summers, Amelia Chumber.
Under 12s: Tom Wiggin, Charlie Becker. Eleanor MacDonald, Katy Reece.
You can find all the JNIC results here.
Tomorrow sees more than 450 archers from 185 clubs step up in an attempt to be named 2018 National Indoor Champion.
A world record status World Archery 18-metre round will be followed by a WA indoor match round. There will also be a Home Nations match.
There are two qualification sessions, at 8.30am and 11.30am and eliminations start at 3.30pm. Medal matches are scheduled to start at 6.30pm.
For target lists and a link to the action as it happens, click here.
