In the TRUBall Axcel Hall at Stoneleigh Park, the 2022 Indoor National Championships has crowned its new victors. For the first time ever, also including categories for 50+ athletes.
Once the archers had completed their WA18 ranking round, they went into a series of head-to-head matches to determine the victors within each division.
After shooting a 585 in the qualification round, Sum Hin Moses Cheung went into the bronze medal match where he defeated Monty Orton 6-2 for the medal.
Going for gold was 5th ranked archer James Woodgate and 3rd ranked Tom Hall. With only three points separating the two after the round it was always going to be a close match. In the end, the men fought their way to a shoot-off, and a 10 from James sealed his top podium spot.
After the match James shared his shock highlighting "I know I achieved the national ranking top spot, but I didn't know how I'd shoot as indoors hasn't been a focus for me. So I'm really happy with my head-to-head performance."
Jaspreet Sagoo finished her qualifying in 14th place with 548 points, but she made her way through to the bronze final where she won against Heather Hughes 6-4.
Indoor World Series champion Penny Healey shot an under 18 world record (still to be ratified) with 594 points, earning her first place after the ranking round. She met last year’s Indoor Nationals champion Bryony Pitman in the gold final and after some very close ends from both women, it was Penny who took home the title 6-4.
Penny couldn't believe the day she had. Looking back on the days performance she couldn't hold back how 'ecstatic' she felt after being crowned National Champion and breaking a world record.
With a score of 583, Jake Walsh ranked in 6th place when he faced Liam Wright in the bronze final. Only one point separated the two, but it was Jake who took home the medal with 147 points to Liam’s 146.
In the fight for gold, Lewis Haslam and Tom Duggan met. They had both scored 583 points after qualification, and their last match of the day proved to be just as close. Lewis pipped Tom to the gold medal by one point, 147-146. Reflecting on his win, Lewis shared “I was able to pull through despite being quite tired. I've never been able to stay at the top of my game throughout a whole competition before, so this is a result in many ways."
Last year’s winner, Sarah Prieels, finished qualification in 3rd place with 583 points. She came up against Paralympic champion Phoebe Paterson Pine in the bronze match, where Sarah took the win with a point to spare, 145-144.
The gold final saw 1st ranked archer Ella Gibson fight it out against 7th ranked Grace Chappell. Ella took an early lead, finishing the match with a five-point lead 148-143, to take the win.
Ella considers Grace to be more of a sister than a friend and even shared how she'd been tuning Grace's bow during qualification. After her win, she shared "It's a different kind of stress competing against someone so close to you, you want them to do well but you also want to do better. But it was really great fun to shoot again her."
After completing the qualifying round in 5th place with 363 points, Kevin Macey only let one point slip to Derek Perkins in the bronze final, taking the match 7-1.
1st ranked Harry Cossey met 7th ranked Graham Peters in the gold final, where Harry continued his winning streak for the day, taking the match 6-0.
Eleanor Green finished qualification in 6th place, and she then went on to win 6-4 against 4th ranked Rebecca Duncan in the bronze final.
In the gold final, the top two ranked archers met to fight it out for the win: 1st ranked Sharon Lawrence and 2nd ranked Sheila Hudson. Shelia came out on top, taking the match 7-3 over Sharon.
Last year’s silver medallist, Rene Bekker, made it through to the bronze final this year where he won against Ralph Barwise 6-2.
Ollie Hicks topped the ranking table with 557 points. He was joined in the gold match by 2nd ranked archer Lonja Selter but went onto win the gold medal with straight sets, 6-0. Ollie shared how he was "ecstatic, relived and happy" with his performance and the National Barebow Champion title. When asked how he's be celebrating, he shared he wouldn't be able to celebrate until after his mock exams. Talk about a focused attitude!
Cheryl King ranked in 4th place with 488 points to take her through to the bronze final. She met 3rd ranked Claire Edwards who she defeated 6 set points to 4.
1st place Carol-Anne Seez and 2nd place Sarah Hubbard came up against each other in the gold final. It was Sarah who took the top spot from Carol-Anne by winning the match 6-4. After the final, Sarah shared how much she had been struggling recently and was overjoyed to seed high and come out on top.
For the first time this year the National Indoor Championships included 50+ categories for each of the disciplines. Here are the top three archers, including the first ever champions for these categories:
8th ranked Peter Webb shot in the bronze medal match where he faced 7th ranked Neil Brown. Peter took the win with straight set wins, 6-0.
In the fight for gold, 5th ranked Timothy Peers also won his match with a clean 6-0 win over 6th ranked Lee Edwards.
4th ranked Debbie Geddes and 3rd ranked Wendie King brought their bronze final to a shoot-off. They both shot an 8, but it was Debbie’s arrow which was the closest to the centre to earn her the win.
The gold final also went all the way to a shoot-off, this time between the top seeded archers, 1st ranked Helen Taylor and 2nd ranked Alison Page. A 9 from Alison to Helen’s 7 won Alison the title.
4th ranked Simon Holmes faced Alastair Shields for the bronze medal, which Simon won with a comfortable five-point lead, 143-138.
The gold final was a close affair that saw 7th ranked Terry Davies meet 8th ranked Tim Woolcott. Terry took the match with a two-point lead of 138 points to 136.
Sarah Trout faced 3rd ranked Rhona Halliday-Noden in the bronze final where Sarah took the win 137-135 with two points to spare.
In the gold final, 1st seed Pam Duncanson met 2nd seed Allison McCullock. The match went all the way to a shoot-off, and a 10 from Pam against Allison’s 9 secured Pam the gold medal.
Reflecting on her win Pam said, "I really wasn't expecting it, I just wanted to come here for some fun and it's been a phenomenal experience".
