News Flash
Chris Horan shoots for GBR at World 3D championships
The World Archery World 3D Championships were recently held in Terni, Italy.
In total, approximately 250 athletes competed at this event, representing 25 different countries.
Competing at the event, as part of the Great Britain Archery Team was Chris Horan, who is a current member of Ashford Archers.
The competition format was set over 5 days, with two days of qualification rounds, followed by elimination rounds leading to the finals.
The qualification rounds consisted of 24 targets each day, with the distance of each target varying between 10 and 45 metres. The distance of each target was unknown to the competitors; therefore this required the additional skill of being able to accurately estimate distances.
The targets were located on difficult terrain, with the courses being set next to the picturesque Marmore Falls. This meant that targets were often set with steep inclines and declines. The temperature also regularly exceeded 35 degrees Celsius on each day of competition.
Chris placed 36th at this event, and stated the following about his performance:
“This was the first time I have competed internationally as part of the Great Britain Team. It was an amazing experience, and one from which I have gained a huge amount of valuable experience. I am now fully motivated to attempt to qualify for the European championships that are being held in 2017 in Slovenia. I am very grateful to numerous great companies that supported me in attending the World Championships this year, including the generous grants I received from both the Southern Counties Archery Association and the John Hartfield Bursary.”
Chris Horan shooting at the World 3D championships 2015 (C) Finn Andersen
Fin-And Photography
Kent Championship Report
Sunday 16th August 2015 saw the 62nd running of the Kent Archery Associations county championships. Ashford Archers were represented by Rachael Brown, Andrea Constable, Mark Hollyer, Steven Batey and Bob Beaney. There was some success on the day with Rachael claiming her first Rose award with a personal best score. Bob won the veterans compound trophy. The full results are available from the Kent Arhery Website
What an amazing weekend at the British Archery Field Championship
Over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th May 2015 the British Archery Field Championship was held at Head Down, Petersfield, Hampshire, right in the middle of the South Downs national park. 4 members of the recently formed Kent Archery Field association, which included 3 members of Ashford Archers, booked in and took part. For Chris Horan, a member of Ashford Archers, this was nothing new, a veteran of many major field championships from one end of the country to the other. For Hannah Brown, an International Archery judge, and not a member of Ashford Archers but likes the shooting shirt, this too was nothing new. But for the president and chairman of Ashford Archers, Bob Beaney and Tony Harris, this was our first real experience of a field championship under such testing circumstances, and most definitely our first experience of an unmarked round, both of us had only ever shot field rounds where you knew the distance to the target from the shooting position, we had taken the plunge and entered at the top field tournament in the country, in for a penny in for a pound.
Pictures from a camera phone I am afraid do not do justice to the steepness of some of the up and down hill shots over which some of the targets were arranged. The one below hopefully gives you a hint, observe the spotters in the background and note the angle of the binoculars!
One target that springs to minds is a 45 meter long shot on a 60cm face, for those of you used to shooting indoors that’s a Portsmouth face at very nearly 2 and half times the distance, where the target was a good 30 meters above your ground level up a slope of approximately 45 degrees. On top of this you were stood on uneven ground that sloped upwards and away from you. After shooting your 3 arrows you then had to scale those heights to score and retrieve your arrows. This may sound easy, but believe me, you try it carrying your bow, arrows and the rest of your equipment, my legs felt like lead when I reached the top. On more than one occasion this was followed by another uphill shot. It was always a relief when you turned the corner and headed back downhill, only to find that when you reached the bottom the course turned back uphill again! I would say that from the lowest to the highest point on the course must have been approaching 80 meters and on day 1 we did that climb 3 times, on day 2 we did it 4 times, if you know me you know how much of a challenge this was.
Will we do this again? Yes most defiantly, next year this shoot will not be the British Field Championship, that is to be held in Belfast, but we will be back to this and a few other field venues in the south of England. We hope you will consider joining us and giving field archery a go.