The first stage of the 2023 National Tour kicked off at Bucks and Bounty held at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
The day started with the ranking round, which turned out very successful for many people. Paralympic Champion Phoebe Paterson Pine unofficially broke the compound women’s open para world record. Previously the score stood at and 695, and Phoebe beat this with a 696, which also ranked her in second.
Phoebe said: "I didn't know I was on for the record. I shot a really amazing first 360 and then just continued to work on my process and doing my shot. It was only once I finished and people were congratulating me when I thought I'd broken it!"
In first place for the compound women was Ella Gibson with a 699, and for the compound men Adam Carpenter topped with table with 702 points. Sarah hubbard and Mark Turner led the barebow men and women categories. Antalya world cup champion and world number 1 Penny Healey ranked first for the recurve women, and Monty Orton was in first for the men.
After a rainy start to the head-to-head matches, the shooting got underway. Lizzie Foster beat world number 1 Ella Gibson in the semi-final to make the gold match with 146-144. Ella went on to take the bronze medal from opponent Phoebe Paterson Pine. World number 10 Sarah Prieels won the compound women’s gold against Lizzie with 148-142.
There was a shoot-off for the bronze compound men’s medal between Nathan MacQueen and Neil Bridgewater, and it was Nathan who shot the closer ten to take the win. Ajay Scott won the gold medal against world number 17 Domagoj Buden with a point to spare, 146-145.
Ajay said: "I've wanted to shoot against Domi for a long time. It was definitely nerve-wracking with the score being so close throughout the match. It felt really good to win and it's also a confidence boost to start off the year."
For the barebow women’s gold, Chloe Driscoll took a clean 6-0 win over Nadine Parker. The 2022 National Tour Final champion Helen Brown won the bronze 7-3 over Nikki Ledwick.
Daniel Kilgallon took the bronze medal for the barebow men with a 6-0 win over Trevor Carr. The winner of the gold was the 2022 National Tour Final champion Wilco van Kleef-Bolton who beat Martin Athanasiou 6-0.
Penny Healey continued her outdoor season winning streak by taking gold over teammate Jaspreet Sagoo 6-4. In the bronze final, world number 4 Bryony Pitman shot 7-1 over Malgorzata Sobieraj to take the third spot on the podium.
Steve Davies beat Roger Castillo-Alquezar to a close 6-4 win for the recurve men's bronze medal, and European Youth champion Monty Orton also took a 6-4 win over Alex Wise for the gold medal.
The second 2023 National Tour weekend will take place in less than a week on 6-7 May at Barnsley Archery Club. To see all of the scores and results from Saturday's shooting, see the Ianseo link here.
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