The Archery Ireland National Target Championships – one of the last major competitions of the Irish Archery calendar – took place over thew weekend…
It was hosted by Wolfshead Company of Archers in Granard, Co. Longford, and it took place over two days, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September.
Saturday was dedicated to Senior archers, while Sunday was for both the Junior and Master categories.
The format was a WA720 qualifying round, followed by knockout Head to Head matches. Conditions on Saturday were disappointingly bad with extremely high winds.
Competing for CúChulainn Archers in Senior Male Compound Éamonn Rogers was knocked out in the 1/8th.
In Senior Compound Women, the wind again played havoc. Lenka Halouzkova, unfortunately, had an equipment failure and was knocked out in the quarter-finals along with Emma Crosbie.
Emma was unfortunate to come up against Paralympian Kerrie Leonard of Blackheath Archers who was just home from Paralympics in Paris where she shot extremely well.
There was a very large entry in the Senior Male Recurve category where, despite qualifying well, the wind again played havoc with CúChulainn’s Kevin Flynn who was knocked out in the 1/8th.
Also in competition on Saturday – though not for CúChulainn Archers – were Wexford men Padraig Doyle of Duncormick (Slaney Archers) who won Gold in Barebow Senior Men and the National Title and Christopher Ryan of Rosslare Strand (University of Galway Archery Club) who took Gold in Compound Senior Men and the National Title.
With this win, Wexford men Éamonn Rogers and Christopher Ryan remain the only two archers to win consecutive back to back Open Titles and to win the Open a total of 3 times!
The weather on Sunday was somewhat better and CúChulainn’s Pádraic Barry took the Gold Medal in his first ever National Target Championships (Recurve under 18 Men).
Sunday also saw one of the Senior Men travelling to the Archery NI National and Open Target Championships, hosted by Lisburn Archery Club.
The format was the same, WA 720 Qualifying Round followed by knock out Head to Head rounds. There, Éamonn Rogers (Senior Compound) took the Bronze Open Medal.
CúChulainn Archers holds beginner courses throughout the year, enquiries to cuchulainnwexford@yahoo.com
Wexford Weekly
This article was published by a member of the Wexford Weekly team.