There will be a strong international flavour when the 2012 New Zealand archery championships are finalised at the Solway golf driving range in Masterton on January 7.
Most of the country's top archers have already indicated they will be entering the event and they will be joined by competitors fromthe United Kingdom, Fiji, Samoa, Australia and New Caledonia.
Making it through the finals will be a strenuous exercise involving a week-long string of qualifying and elimination contests in both Mana and Masterton and when it comes to the crunch there will be eight teams and 16 individuals fighting it out for the major prizes.
It won't be only the national titles keenly sought, however, as World Archery will be using the results to allocate Olympic spots to countries within the Oceania region.
And when three or more countries are competing in a division "open"medals will be on offer and judging by the quantity and quality of the overseas entrants the top Kiwis will need to be on their best form to keep them out.
Among those spearheading the New Zealand challenge will be 2004 junior and 2009 senior world championship bronze medallist Stephen Clifton, a 2010 gold medallist at the World Cup in Shanghai in Shaun Teasdale and Jo Sun-Kim, who won a gold medal in the teams event with South Korea at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She now resides in Christchurch.
Targets will be set at 70m away for the recurve archers and 50m for the compounds and the January 7 finals will have a wholly new dynamic for spectators.
Not only will their seating be close to the action but big screen TVs will also relay the tenseness of the competition in a way never before seen in this country.
