Lois Howe in action at the IFAA World Field Archery Competition.
Lois Howe in action at the IFAA World Field Archery Competition.
Northland archers have proved their mettle on the international stage with an impressive performance at the IFAA World Field Archery Competition.
Held in Wagga Wagga, NSW, seven participants from Mt Tiger Archers took part along with over 650 archers from 16 countries.
This was the largest archery event ever heldin Australasia. The competition was to be over five days, however a significant weather event in NSW effected the shoot, which was reduced to three days of intense competition.
The archers from Mt Tiger competed extremely well in their respective events and brought home some well earned world placings.
The Team of Nations is a well-fought-over title, where all nations competing enter a team of seven archers who represent all shooting divisions. The New Zealand team took out top honours and brought home gold in this event.
The New Zealand Team of Nations included Mt Tiger Archer Trevor Irvine shooting in the veteran freestyle unlimited division. Irvine placed fourth in his division.
Individual placings saw Tyrell Rapana romp home with a clear win earning him a gold in the Cub Male Freestyle Unlimited division.
Mt Tigers Archers' Tyrone Rapana took out the Cub Male Freestyle Unlimited division of the IFAA World Field Archery Competition was held in Wagga Wagga, Australia.
Lois Howe finished fourth equal, followed by Cheryl Irvine in seventh in veteran female freestyle unlimited. Glenn Taylor placed eleventh in a large field of Adult Male Bowhunter Unlimited.
Rob Ward ended up fourth in veteran longbow and, together with two fellow NZ team mates, collected a gold in the longbow-style team event.
Lisa Ferris placed fifth overall in a large field of Adult Female Bowhunter Unlimited archers.
Shooting groups are changed daily and were peer and score based.
A highlight for Ferris was shooting in the top group with top-ranking world-class archers from Australia and South Africa.
She also brought home a very respectable bronze in the Bowhunter Unlimited style team event with fellow NZ archers from Dargaville (fourth) and Pukekohe (sixth). This event was won by the Australian mens team, with the NZ mens team coming second.
Coming third in a mixed field of men and women is an impressive result in a world competition.
A highlight of the event was swapping team shirts with fellow world archers. One archer later posted on Facebook that she was thrilled to receive Lisa's shirt as it is the equivalent of an All Blacks shirt, but for archery.
NZ is hosting the next major world archery competition - The World Masters games, in April next year. Many of the archers who competed at the WFAC in Wagga Wagga will be competing. Archery was one of the first three sports to sell out for the World Masters event.
Following this will be the IFAA Pacific's, also being held in NZ later in 2017. This is a two-yearly event with Australia and New Zealand taking turns to be the host. The next IFAA WFAC is to be held in South Africa in October 2018.
