The Pod was transformed into a magnificent finals stage for the final day of the Worshipful Company of Fletchers' Disability Championships 2019.
First match of the day was the bronze W1 Men and Women Mixed finals, Martin Saych and Victoria Rumary. The match was tight throughout, but Martin took the bronze medal by just two points 131-129. In the W1 Mixed division, Martin Saych had to shoot against Victoria Kingstone in the Quarter Finals, winning 123-116. Then against the eventual gold medal winner Tamas Gaspar in the Semi Finals, losing 131-135 which placed him in the bronze medal match. After the match, Martin said he Â"felt exhausted”, but with a bring grin on his face.
The gold medal match between Tamas Gaspar and John Cavanagh, last years' bronze and gold medallist respectively. This year, Tamas took the gold medal after leading from the first end, opening with a 29 to JC's 24. Tamas finished 135 to JC's 129. Andrea Gales was in the box behind JC as she is his coach on Para Squad, while Tamas had Gary Critchlow-Smith from SportAble, his club.
The Women's Compound Open Final gold medal match was between Jessica Stretton and Amanda Davidson. These two previously competed against each other in the 2018 bronze medal match, Jessica took home the gold medal this time with Amanda taking the silver. Jessica has had an amazing season this year after winning silver at the World Para Championships in the Compound Women Team and bronze in the World Youth Championships in the Compound Junior Women Team.
Alex Scott, bronze medal winner in the Men's Compound Open Final, made his debut at the event this year. After an unfortunate miss from Alex, David Davies overtook on scores, but they ended up tied and forced a shoot off, Alex shot a nine to David's seven. David, who took fourth place, won the Fletchers' Cup for the person who is closest to or beats their personal best during the competition. Both of these archers said they enjoyed the event and it has helped them learn how to shoot on a finals field.
Team and squad mates, Nathan MacQueen and Jamie Harris faced each other in the gold medal match, 2018 champion Jamie took home the silver with Nathan taking the title for 2019. Afrer two 30s in the match, Nathan finished with 146 to Jamie's 132. Nathan had Jessica Stretton in the coaches' box, as he had been her coach during her match, so a win win for both!
A quick target change from 50 metres to 70 metres for the recurve matches and the Women's Recurve Open gold medal match began. Hazel took the first set 2-0 against Kate Murray after shooting 22-15. Kate then took a swift set back to bring it to 2-2, but unfortunately missed in the third set, so Hazel took it 4-2 and 6-2 to proudly win the gold medal and title for 2019!
The final division, the Men's Recurve Open Final saw good friends Daniel Powell and Kieran Wood go head to head where Daniel took the bronze medal in straight sets 6-0. Daniel afterwards could not stop smiling from the feeling of taking home a medal from the Championships. Paul Browne faced youth archer Cameron Radigan, who made his debut on the Senior Disability Championships scene this weekend. Cameron took the match 6-0.
After the matches were finished, a short lunch with the Worshipful Company of Fletchers was provided followed by a friendly head to head competition between some of the competitors and the Fletchers. There was a warm, friendly feeling of the overall event and we couldn't be happily with how it all went!
Archery GB would like to take a moment to thank our sponsors, KG Archery for their beautiful, handmade medals.
Full results can be found here: https://www.ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=6027
