ARCHERY GB

Archery GB is celebrating a weekend of international successes for several athletes at the final World Cup stage in Paris and the European Para Championships in Rotterdam. 

Current women’s compound world number one Gloucestershire’s Ella Gibson, gained her first gold medal of the World Cup season in Paris during an incredibly tight and close-fought gold medal match against Denmark’s Tanja Gellenthien. The match saw both athletes tied at 145-145 after five ends, taking them to a nail-biting sudden death shoot-out where Ella held her nerve to land her final arrow the closest to the centre.

After securing her gold medal, Ella said: “It feels amazing to finally get a gold this year.”

When it’s such high pressure like that [shoot off], you can be really nervous, adrenaline can get to you, and you can be scared.”

“But you just have to remind yourself that, actually, this is the aim, this is the thing that you want. This is the thing you train for every single day, to be on a world stage. You’ve just got to try and remember that, relax and enjoy it.”

“I felt like the universe had given me one little free pass and one extra opportunity to win gold.”

In September, 23-year-old Ella will now take her place in the World Cup Finals alongside individual recurve athlete and world number one Penny Healy in Hermosillo, Mexico. 

Success was also savoured at the European Para Championships in Rotterdam where athletes won a number of medals across both the compound and recurve categories.  

Nathan Macqueen of Dumfries did the double securing gold medals in both the individual compound men’s and compound mixed team competitions, the latter in partnership for the first time with world number three Phoebe Paterson Pine.

After winning his second gold at the European Para Championships, Nathan said: 

“It’s a bit hard to believe to be honest as I had such a bad year last year with health issues and stuff so I only made one competition. To come out this year and medal at every event I’ve been to is a dream come true.” 

“I shot my shot the first three arrows then I got really excited and took my foot off the gas pedal a wee bit, but I managed to get it back again and pull away.” 

On securing gold in partnership with Macqueen for the first time, Phoebe said: 

“(I am) super happy and super proud of both of us. This is our first European gold together. We went out and we shot really well. (We were) fully calm and collected. We worked so well as a team but I’m super proud.” 

Recurve glory was also gained in the men’s doubles competition by the formidable pairing of Cwmbran’s Dave Phillipsand Galston’s Cameron Radigan who saw off Turkey to take the title 6-2.

On winning gold, Dave said: “We are absolutely overwhelmed. We knew the conditions were tricky out there. We want to applaud our opponents because we know they are very good quality archers. We are very fortunate and very happy.” 

“It was difficult today with the wind but I think we got the gaps in the wind where maybe our opponents were not quite so lucky.” 

“Maybe it was a bit of experience, we get a lot of wind in Scotland, in Wales and in Great Britain, so we are masters at it.” 

Of his teammate, Radigan said: “It’s a great feeling. I am just happy to be here and shoot with a great teammate.” 

“The knowledge that he is giving me through archery is incredible. I learnt so much in such a short period of time. What he has shown me in three weeks has been great.” 

Bronze medals were also won in the W1 Mixed Team and compound women’s doubles categories.

In the W1 mixed team, Camberley’s Victoria Kingstone and Ipswich’s Martin Saych following an incredibly close-fought final finally beating Czechia 117-116.

Speaking after their win Martin said:“Normally I am a little bit more composed. It’s been a tough week, so it’s a very good way of finish the week.” 

“It was tight. I wasn’t paying attention to the score at all. I was focused on my shots and kept breathing.” 

In the compound women’s doubles, Hemel Hempstead’s Jessica Stretton and Crawley’s Jodie Grinham completed their bronze-medal match with a convincing victory against Poland 133-124. 

After winning the medal, Jessica said: “I feel pretty proud actually, pretty ecstatic. The conditions were not good at all for that match. The wind was an absolute nightmare. But we all shot probably the best we could, given the conditions. I think we all fought really hard for it.” 

“I think if I had to sum this final up in one word, it would be difficult. It’s always difficult with the wind and for the wind to be as changeable as it was today, it definitely was difficult to find the right shot to shoot.” 

For more information on Archery GB and its performance teams, please visit archerygb.org. 

On the 2nd and 3rd September, a selection of the UK’s finest archers will assemble at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham for the National Tour Finals, where six champions will be crowned in the disciplines of recurve, compound and barebow archery. 

The event will give spectators unique access to an incredible weekend of archery action that includes a number of home-grown, world-leading athletes and Olympic hopefuls aiming to be named in the GB squad for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.  

On Saturday, September 2, the compound and barebow archers will be competing with top names including Ella Gibson who recently broke the 50-metre qualifying and 70-metre points world records, and is current world number 1, the 2022 European champion Izzy Carpenter, as well as her equally talented brother and reigning National Tour champion, Adam Carpenter who will be competing to retain his crown for the fourth consecutive year.

In the recurve competitions on Sunday, September 3, there is the chance to watch 18-year-old Olympic hopeful Penny Healey, the current world number 1, who has already qualified for the world cup finals in Mexico later this year. Alongside her will be Tokyo 2020 archer and world number 3 Bryony Pitman, whilst representing the male side will be 2022 National Tour Final winner Patrick Huston looking to retain his title.

As well as all this top-class sports action there will be plenty for spectators and families to enjoy, including food available to purchase and meet and greets with some of the top names in the sport. There will even be a have-a-go range for visitors to try their hand at the sport*. 

This will be the seventh time the National Tour competition has been held at Wollaton Hall and tickets can be purchased in advance by visiting here or on the day. Full details can be found on the event website.

Archery GB is celebrating a week of international successes for several of its athletes at the European Games in Krakow, Poland.

18-year-old Penny Healey returns from the competition with two gold medals, having won the individual women’s recurve and the team recurve women’s competition alongside Bryony Pitman and Jaspreet Sagoo. 

Penny has also earned GB an individual recurve women’s quota spot for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

The world number two archer shot some astounding matches on her route through to the finals in Krakow, Poland. Her form did not falter in the gold final against Spain’s Elia Canales, eventually winning the match 6-2 and being crowned the European Games champion for 2023.

After her win, Penny shared her feelings on the week’s competition, saying, “It was not easy – I think there was a lot of nerves there and also it’s never easy to play up against an awesome opponent and a friend as well. This week I think everyone’s done really well and we’ve all shot to the best that we could.”

She went on to share her pride in earning GB’s recurve women’s quota spot for Paris 2024, “I feel great, my nan, unfortunately, passed away before I came out here so I said to my mum that I’d get the quota spots for her and that I’d win for her and I’ve done that. This gold medal means a lot, I’d said I wanted to do my nan proud, and I have so I’m really happy to do that.”

Women’s compound world number one Ella Gibson also ended her week at the competition with success shooting to a silver medal in the individual competition.

After ranking in 1st place and securing a new world record of 715 points during qualifying, Ella earned herself a bye straight through to the quarterfinals to face Dutch archer Sanne de Laat. A neck and neck between the two eventually ended with Ella securing a one-point lead to win, 143-142. 

She then secured victory against Turkish archer Hazal Burun in the semi-finals to face Eliza Roner from Italy in the gold medal match. The pair battled against tricky wind conditions in the final, with Ella eventually being beaten by the Italian athlete and being awarded the silver medal. 

Speaking after the final about her silver medal win, Ella said “For sure, I mean coming out and winning a medal is always what you want and it’s great to be able to come to my first European Games and do that. Obviously, I’m a little bit frustrated with how the final went and of course not winning gold, but there will be many more opportunities and I know I’ll be on the finals field again.”

For more information on Archery GB and its performance teams, please visit archerygb.org. 

A unique sport which brings together archery and running is being championed with a special event next month.

Earlier this year Archery GB organised a pilot event in Newark, bringing together a small group of archers to try their hands – and legs – at Run Archery.

Following this successful event, another opportunity is being arranged on Sunday, September 11 in Birmingham. Members of Archery GB are being invited to attend the event at Redhill Archers’ base and have a go at the unique archery discipline and get their heart racing on and off the shooting line.

Run Archery is a shooting discipline, similar to biathlon, connecting archery with running. It provides an alternative archery discipline that may help the sport with the retention and recruitment of archers and runners.

While it is more established on the continent, and there is a European Cup, Run Archery is still new here in the UK. 

Run Archery has several events and distances, including:

• Individual 4k
• Individual sprint (our event)
• Team Sprint (3 x same gender – run once)
• Mixed Team Sprint (1 of each gender, run once)
• Team Double Sprint (3 x same gender, run twice)
• Mixed Team Double Sprint (2 of each gender, each runs once)

There are also several categories for competitors including Cadet Men/Women,Junior Men/Women, Women/Men, Masters Women/Men.

For now, Archery GB is focusing on the individual sprint event, in which shooting takes place over 18 metres, with archers carrying the bow either in their hands or in a harness. There are no compound bows, and the draw weight is limited to 35lbs maximum.

Competitors must complete a 400m run, then shoot four arrows while standing. Any missed arrows incur a 60m penalty running lap. They then have to run another 400m and shoot four arrows while kneeling. This is followed by another 400m, and then 50m run to the finish line.

The event in September, for current Archery GB members only, will include four races for men, women, U18 men and U18 women.

Registration will be from 9.30am, with a warm up from 10am. The men’s race starts at 10.45am, the women’s at 11.15am, the U18 men’s race at 11.45am and the U18 women’s race at 12.15pm. There may be a relay race if there are enough entries and interest.

While non-Archery GB members cannot take part in the Run Archery competition, Redhill Archers will be hosting a Have-a-Go event for people and runners to try archery.

And Archery GB hopes that in future it may be able to welcome non-AGB members to try Run Archery and to hold crossover events with athletics organisations. 

Anyone interested in attending should book their place via the member’s portal on the Archery GB website.

Archery up first with an audience to captivate

The archery athletes in Team GB are among those kicking off the Olympic schedule in Tokyo with ranking rounds taking place alongside the opening ceremony on Friday 23 July and the first archery gold medal will be awarded as early as next Saturday 24 July.

All archers will be shooting for personal glory, with their own individual targets in mind – a personal best, top 10 performance or even the dream of a medal. This year more than ever it is the taking part that truly counts and to have finally reached the start of this year’s Olympics is a dream come true for every member of the archery team.

Whatever your age or ability, archery can work for you

Archery is a fun and inclusive activity – a recent initiative across the country – The Big Archery Weekend – attracted over 3,500 participants at 52 different venues, all keen to try something new and different.  It is this natural appeal to a broad and diverse audience that will help archery become known more widely since it truly is a sport that can be enjoyed by anyone.

It is hoped that the individual and team performances which will be showcased to watching TV and online audiences during this first week of the Olympics will help garner widespread interest in the sport and generate support for the elite athletes representing Team GB. By demonstrating its suitability as a sport for all it is hoped archery will become cemented in the psyche of the UK population as a new sporting activity to be explored and experienced first-hand. 

An inclusive and accessible sport for all

Archery is an inclusive sport that can be enjoyed by children and adults of all ages, backgrounds and abilities – it is also easily adaptable to most disabilities, breaking down barriers and creating an accessible path to sport. While not always considered a mainstream sporting activity, archery can be learnt relatively quickly and undertaken indoors or out, bringing many physical and mental health benefits for all participants while naturally lending itself to social distancing.

Commenting on the prospects for the archery team, Neil Armitage, CEO at Archery GB said “What a way to start this year’s Tokyo Olympics – I am sure our Performance Archery team will do everything in their power to succeed, whether this be personal bests or medals, and make Archery GB and the whole of Britain proud. The ranking rounds on Friday are just the starting point of their Olympic journey this year but it will be a relief to get the competition started given the delays and uncertainty of the last 12 months. We can’t wait to see how the individual and team events unfold over the coming days.”

David Tillotson, Olympic Team Director for Archery, said: “Like all sports and athletes we have had to adapt to a delayed Games year and worked hard on our flexibility and resilience in these uncertain and complex times. With this very talented group of athletes, our Games ambitions remain firmly in place and we are resolved and excited to deliver performances that will cast a bright and inspiring light on British archery. Being on so early in the Games programme gives us a great opportunity to lead TeamGB off in a successful Olympic Games.”

To help even more people get into archery, Archery GB has launched the Start Archery website, which provides everything beginners need to know about taking up the sport, including where to find courses and clubs. It will also offer a range of resources for schools and organisations.