Small but well-formed field will take shots at Pac titles

Whangarei's Mt Tiger Archery Club will host the International Federation of Field Archery (IFAA) Pacific Championships which get under way tomorrow.
The Pacific titles will take place at the Mt Tiger Rd venue and will include archers from all over New Zealand as well as a strong Australian contingent.
Media spokeswoman Linda Garner said the event had attracted 40 competitors, and while the number was disappointing, the calibre of shooters contesting the event was impressive.
"Most of our competitors are from Auckland and further afield - we have 12 from Australia - and with the economic situation, four nights in a B&B just gets too expensive for many," she said.
Organisers had been expecting around 100 competitors to attend the championships.
Another reason for the under-attendance could be the level of competition, Garner said.
"It is a high level of competition and very intensive so it attracts mainly serious competitors," Garner said.
New Zealand  No1 Linda Lainchbury, Northland's Trevor Irvine and top Australian competitors are among those "serious competitors" who would be at Mt Tiger Archery Club on the weekend.
During the three-day event, archers will be shooting on three different courses - field, hunter and animal.
These courses have been designed in line with strict IFAA regulations and will be placed in bush and in the hills at Mt Tiger.
Course director Ross Fryer is confident he has set a challenging but fair course for competitors and local archery enthusiasts have been working hard to ensure the courses meet the international standards.
Mt Tiger Archery Club hopefuls include Irvine, Lisa Ferris, Dave Sandiford,  Fryer, Rob Ward, with a strong junior and cub division represented by Robert Douglas Green, Ben Hart and Kelsey Ferris who are all familiar with the local terrain.
This international meet will not be the first for Lisa Ferris, who finished sixth in her division at the World Field Archery Championships in 2006 where more than 600 archers took part.
Ferris has been shooting for seven years now, but has spent the past three contesting the Adult Female Bowhunter Unlimited category and, despite many first places during those years at various competitions, she has not yet won a Pacific title.
"So that's one of my goals - to win a Pacific title at these championships," she said.
 Kelsey Ferris  broke four outdoor and one indoor New Zealand archery records since February, while Green claimed three records, and Ward set two.
 Garner  predicted many more records would be broken this weekend.
Shooting begins tomorrow from 9.30am at Mt Tiger Archery Club and concludes on Sunday.