Archery: Rotorua teen right on target

Rotorua archer Iori Morley was born in Japan - but she is now a proud Kiwi. The 17-year-old is one of three Rotorua archers who competed in this week's biennial transtasman youth archer challenge at Smallbone Park.

Morley a former Lakes High student, moved to Rotorua from Japan four years ago and took up archery after trying it at a school camp.

"When I was a Year 8, we were at camp and did lots of multiple sports and one of them was archery and mum found an archery club after that."

It is the first time the Waiariki Institute of Technology student, who is now studying early childhood education, has made the national side. The compound archer (a bow which uses pulleys) said it had been a testing competition all week.

"It's my first time [in the New Zealand team] and I'm having fun. But I've never done shooting for a whole week, so it's really tiring. My shoulders are pretty much stuffed."

Overall, Morley was happy with her shooting and competing internationally had sparked her interest in representing New Zealand in the future.

She is even considering going back to a recurve bow (without pulleys) which she started with because it is an Olympic sport.

"Yeah, I might [try for the Olympics] one day. Actually, I don't remember much about shooting recurve. The compound is heavier, but when it comes to the full draw it's lighter than the recurve."

Morley's teammate fellow Rotorua archer Elizabeth Randle, who is competing in the New Zealand squad for the second time, said the Australian team had been a lot tougher this time compared with two years ago.

"I've been really happy with my shooting. This [tournament] has been much better, the team knows each other. Last time I didn't have much competition but it has been pretty tough [this time]."

Randle picked up a silver medal in the cadet women's compound individual, losing to Australian Ella Hugo. Morley missed out on a bronze medal after being beaten by her Australian counterpart Emily Sutton.

Tauranga archer Mykel Turner picked up a silver in the cadet men's recurve while Rotorua's Marcus Barclay also won silver in the cadet men's compound. Whakatane archer Sebastian Ashburn managed a bronze in the intermediate men's recurve.