Lewis & Harris Sports Festival - ARCHERY EVENTS

Lewis & Harris Sports News

Sat 26th Feb 2011

Standards rise as Island Archers contest Sports Festival indoor archery tournament

Fourteen participants contested Lewis & Harris Sports Council's Sports Festival archery competition 2011, which was held at the Lewis Sports Centre on the afternoon of Saturday 26th February. Although numbers were marginally down from last year's indoor archery championships, it was evident that the renaissance at Island Archers is continuing apace and the standard of archery amongst most of the field has risen significantly, with scorelines improving dramatically compared with last year.

Whilst there were familiar names in the top slots, the novices competition, for participants who have been shooting less than year, was the most hotly contended, and for the Club's coaches it was gratifying to see that people who have been shooting less than six weeks had applied the techniques they had been taught, and were higher in the ranking than some of Island Archers more experienced archers.

Once again, Island Archers Chairman Toby Marshall squeaked the win, despite being pushed hard by second-placed Stuart Oakley and third-placed Jason Spinks. Stuart attributed his defeat to the fact that, having damaged two of his arrows early in the competition, his replacements 'had not had time to warm up' - an explanation which will doubtless take pride of place in the Club's voluminous record of amusing excuses.

The performance of the day went to relative newcomer Ceri Dyke, who put in an amazing display of consistency to relegate Island Archers veteran archer Ken Le Goubin into fifth place, win the Senior Ladies category with a score of 457, and smash the Club's record score for a Portsmouth Round.

Mark Spinks also showed maturity and concentration beyond his years to better his own Gents Under 16 recurve record by a massive 71 points to take the junior win with a score of 404, taking sixth place overall in the process.

Another blistering performance was shown by newcomer Martin Zweifel, who, despite having taken up the sport less than six weeks ago, set an early pace in the novices competition and rose to third place by the third 'end' of arrows before slowly slipping to seventh to take the novices crown. The language student's score of 362 was head-and-shoulders above his nearest rival, and enabled him to the more experienced eighth-placed Heide Macleod by over 50 points.

In the team competition, it was no surprise that last year's winners, re-formed as Panda-Monuim, took the win, but it was good to see that the returning ladies team Amazon Archers had improved sufficiently, largely due to Ceri's stalwart performance, to take second, and credit must go to third-placed novice group Team Spirit, who showed that they were, indeed, spirited, and not going down without a fight, despite their relative inexperience.

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Lewis & Harris Sports News

Sun 1st Mar 2009

2009 Sports Festival Archery events a resounding success

The 2009 Lewis & Harris Sports Council's Sports Festival Archery events were held in the main sports hall at the Ionad Spòr Leòdhais (Lewis Sports Centre, Stornoway) on Saturday 28^th February 2009.The sports hall was new venue for the event, which is usually held in the Nicolson Institute assembly hall, as it was felt that the numbers turning up for the come-and-try archery taster session in previous years had made it harder to maintain the necessary safety protocols, and the venue switch was felt to be an extremely positive step, and worth repeating.The afternoon got underway with six archery novices nervously eyeing a bewildering array of archery paraphernalia set up for them by Island Archers for the come-and-try taster session. But once they had been given some instruction in the art and science of the sport, and had been given the opportunity to put the theory into practice, they all took to it like ducks to water, and did immensely well for a group with so little experience. No balloon pinned to the targets was safe!Especially gratifying from the Club's point of view is that it is likely that some will come along to some Island Archers Wednesday night shooting sessions, and may well be rising stars of the future...

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Lewis & Harris Sports News

Tue 17th Feb 2009

FITA signs media distribution deal

International Archery Federation (FITA) have signed a six-year worldwide partnership with international sports media firm MP & Silva to to distribute the federation's media rights. The long-term deal, which marks the first time FITA has appointed an agency in its 78-year history to distribute its media rights, will see the agency exclusively distribute all major archery events globally, including the World Cup Stages and Finals, as well as its Indoor and Outdoor Championships (except Korea in 2009). MP & Silva manages and distributes television and media rights to various sporting events, including Italy's top professional football league, Serie A.MP & Silva will also help the federation identify and secure new corporate sponsors as a non-exclusive FITA partner for sponsorship.

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Lewis & Harris Sports News

Fri 16th Jan 2009

Lewis & Harris Sports Festival '09 - Entry Forms Available

Entries are now being accepted for the Lewis and Harris Sports Festival archery events, which are to be run at the Ionad Spòr Leòdhais (ISL - Lewis Sports Centre, Springfield Road, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis) on Saturday 28^th February 2009.Further details can be found at http://www.islandarchers.org/club_sportsfest.php, and by clicking 'more', below. Completed entry forms (click to download) must be received at Ionad Spòr Leòdhais by 20^th

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