The Surrey Archery Weekend hosted the fourth stage of the 2023 National Tour.
On Saturday during the July Surrey Archery Weekend, the fourth stage winners of the National Tour were crowned. After a rainy and humid morning, the archers finished the qualification round. Alex Wise topped the recurve men’s division with a 667 and Thea Rogers for the recurve women with a 639. On the compound side, UK 1st ranked man Adam Carpenter shot a 705 to take the top spot, and world number 1 Ella Gibson also came first with a 705. UK number 1 barebow woman Sarah Hubbard seeded 1st, and Rene Bekker ranked 1st for the barebow men.
In the gold final for the compound men, seed 1 Adam Carpenter was joined by this year’s stage one winner Domagoj Buden. After three ends, Adam trailed by three points to Domagoj, but two straight 30s from Domagoj to finish the match sealed his win.
Domagoj said: "This is actually probably one of my favourite Tour stages because the field is super impressive and the organisation, in my opinion, is pretty flawless. Towards the end of the day I figured some things out and shots started clicking and I stopped getting stuck, so the gold final actually went pretty smooth for me."
For the women, Ella Gibson met 2nd seed Izzy Carpenter in the gold final. After the third end, only one point separated the two women with Ella in the lead with 88-87. Izzy’s two 29s in the final two ends weren’t enough to take win from Ella’s 30 and 29, earning Ella a 147-145 win.
Ella told us: "It was a little bit of a mix to be honest. I'm super happy to win and I'm pretty happy with most of my matches, like I kept pretty consistent scores with 147s and a 148, but I kind of wanted a little bit more. The wind was sometimes tricky. It didn't move us too much but it was drifting arrows, so I was trying to learn that and work on it."
First ranked barebow woman Sarah Hubbard was joined by 3rd ranked Nadine Parker in the fight for gold. Nadine won the first end and then Sarah won the second to take the set points to 2 all. Sarah then took the next two ends with a 25 and a 27 to win with 6-2, making this Sarah’s third National Tour stage win in a row.
Sarah said: "Three wins in a row gives me a really strong position ranking-wise for the Finals, so I think I'm pretty secure. It would be nice to get that fourth win but it's not essential. This weekend particularly there's been some really good matches, people have really upped their game. It's good to see people pushing themselves and trying to achieve more."
For the men, rank number 1 and avid field shooter Rene Bekker met 2nd ranked Daniel Fisher-Jones. Rene took the first lot of set points with a 25 end to Daniel’s 24. Daniel shot 24s for the next two ends, but a 28 and an almost perfect 29 from Rene sealed him a 6-0 win and his first National Tour stage podium placing.
Rene told us: "I wasn't sure what to expect because this is my first outdoor target event. It took me half the qualification to get settled in and I seemed to pull it together towards the end."
For the recurve women, first ranked Thea Rogers met third ranked Yulia Hinckley for the gold medal. Yulia took the first end win, followed by Thea taking the second end win to 2-2. The third end was Yulia's win with a 29 to 27, bringing the match to 4-2. Thea responded by winning the next two ends to take the win with 6-4.
Thea said: "I've never actually won a medal at a National Tour stage, so I'm very happy with a win in the ranking and in the head-to-heads. I also broke a Welsh record by one point, so that was an extra bonus. All in all, I had a really, really good day."
In the men's recurve gold final, 7th ranked Max Oakley and 16th ranked Patrick Huston came head-to-head. The archers tied the first end with 28 apiece, and then Patrick took the next two ends with 28s to bring the points to 5-1. Max then came back strong with a 28 and a 27 to bring the match to a shoot-off. Patrick shot a 9 but it wasn't enough to take the win from Max who shot a 10.
Max told us: "I started the day off really well with a PB in qualification and then the head-to-heads just got even better. Once I got to the gold, I was 5-1 down and I pushed it to a shoot-off and ended up shooting a ten so it was really good."
To see the scores from Saturday, see the link here.
