August 26, 2017

Youth Festival 2017: one to remember!

The best of Britain's young archers - plus entrants from Ireland and the Netherlands - have helped make the 2017 Archery GB Youth Festival one to remember.

Friendships were forged and potential rivals sized up as more than 180 of the sport's brightest prospects took part in the week-long world record status competition. The aim was to give young archers the opportunity to compete in the international World Archery target format, including team and mixed team head to heads. But most of all, it was fun.

Individual finals brought the festival to a fitting climax today - and there was plenty of drama in some hotly-contested matches.

The junior men's recurve title went to Dutch archer Nick Roos who beat Richard Birkby 6-2. And it took a shoot-off to decide bronze. Keith Hammond faced Morgan Donaldson. Keith shot an eight but Morgan hit the nine to take the medal. The women's title went to Tamara Mitchell with a 6-0 win over Lizzie Warner. Emily Bryant beat Eva Henderson-Hirst to bronze.

There was a tough battle for recurve cadet gold. In then it went to Jacob Reid who beat Thomas Nairn 6-4. Alex Wise took bronze with a 6-4 win over Louis Perkins. And Alyssia Tromans-Ansell beat Louisa Piper into second place with the same scoreline. The bronze went to Ruby Paul.

Imogen Newby retained her recurve cub title, beating Penny Healey 6-2. She said: �"I'm so happy, ecstatic. It was close and Penny is such a great friend. I'm still shaking a little bit! The bronze medal went to Shaimaa Abdelhalim with a 6-0 victory over Leah Ferriday.

Harry Wright took the gold in the men's competition, defeating Samuel Birdsall 6-2. Joshua Smith won a shoot-off for bronze, scoring eight to Ryan Leathem's four.

Compound youth honours went to Jacob Caine with a 146-142 win over Kai Thomas-Prause while Lucy Mason beat Sarah Moon to the women's title. Adam Carpenter and Layla Annison claimed bronze.

In the team competitions, Richard Birkby, Keith Hammond and Adam Power beat Ryan Holden, Callum Platt and Nick Roos to recurve junior men's gold in a shoot-off. Kevin Aan't Goor, Tom Alexander and Struan Caughey won bronze. The women's champions are Leah Bannister, Eva Henderson-Hirst and Lauryn Jewkes who defeated Emily Bryant, Eugenia D'Arcy and Lizzie Warner. Archery Ireland's Alice Jordan and Roisin Mooney won bronze in a shoot-off.

Hayden Setchfield, Luke Stocks and Jonathan Tate defeated Oliver Buckingham, Will Maddison and Thomas Nairn in the final of the recurve cadet men's competition. Third place went to Riley Spencer-Nice, Daniel Thomson and Matthew Vaughan. A shoot-off decided the women's title with Nicole Burdett, Lucy Clarke and Thea Rogers gaining the advantage over Rhiannon Easton, Aspen Salisbury and Alyssia Tromans-Ansell. The bronze went to Sophie Castle, Heather Hughes and Molly Lessimore.

Dru Ridding, Nathan Thomas and Matthew Wong took the gold in the compound youth men's category. The silver went to Jamie Harris, Liam Peake and Alexander Taylor while Ethan O'Mahoney, Caleb Quille and Ewan Wells won bronze. The women's title went to Hallie Boulton, Iulia Petre and Abbie Spinks with a 222-195 win over Maddison Codling, Saffron Cullen and Sharon Murphy.

Penny Healey, Mollie Perrett and Harry Wright beat Ryan Leathem, Imogen Newby and Heike Palmer to gold in the recurve cub mixed gender team match. The bronze went to Shaimaa Abdelhalim and Joshua Smith. The mixed team title went to Imogen Newby and Joshua Smith who beat Samuel Birdsall and Heike Palmer. Shaimaa Abdelhalim and Ryan Leathem were third.

In the tiered mixed teams completion, the results were as follows:

In the recurve junior category, Keith Hammond and Nell Piper beat Jodie Green and Nick Roos 6-0 to take the tier one title with Richard Birkby and Anne Lilley winning the battle for bronze. Struan Caughey and Roisin Mooney won T2 honours.

Second seeds Louis Perkins and Louisa Piper defeated top-ranked Jakob Barrett-Rees and Alyssia Tromans-Ansell 6-0 for the T1 recurve cadets title. Rhian Costall and Alex Wise won a bronze shoot-off against Sophie Castle and Kieran Shirley. The T2 victors were Molly McCormick and Monty Orton while the T3 title went to Megan Costall and Joshua Smith.

James Howse and Sarah Moon took the compound youth T1 honours, beating Izzy Carpenter and Luke Ralls151-147. Bronze went to Layla Annison and Jacob Caine in a shoot-off. The T2 winners were Finnlay Barrett-Rees and Sharon Murphy.

You can find all the results here.

Picture: Malcolm Rees