Over the last couple of weekends I have competed in two indoor tournaments.
The first took place at Bowtime Archery Club on the 16th September, this was the Western Province IFAA Indoor Championship. The IFAA events to not have a category for disabled archers so I competed with all the other Male Recurve Archers.
On the Friday before the Championships I made a small change to the way I shoot, not the best time to make a change but it was something I felt was a needed.
On the day of the Championships I felt strong and confident that my hard work in preparation would pay off.
All I can say is that I had a really good shoot, I felt focused and managed to get a comfortable rhythm.
My scores for the day where:
288/300 possibly a new provincial record, just awaiting ratification
279/300
567/600 possibly a new provincial record, just awaiting ratification
My previous Personal Best in this format in a competition (I don’t count practice and league shoots) was 268
The following weekend we had the Western Province World Archery Indoor Championships which took place at Protea Sports Club on the 23rd September.
Again I had put in a lot of training and preparation. The change I made to my technique the previous week seemed to pay off so I decided to keep the change and work on perfecting it, this is going to take a few weeks. but back to the competition
My Scores for the championships were:
284/300 This is a new Personal Best for me, along with a new provincial and National record for my Disability category (awaiting ratification)
270/300
554/600 his is a new Personal Best for me, along with a new provincial and National record for my Disability category (awaiting ratification)
The score of 554 was also the highest score of any Recurve archer on the day,
So I can honestly say that the last two weekends have been productive and rewarding . I feel very confident in myself and my shooting. As always there is more work to do and the training must never stop.
Now its time to prepare for the SA indoor nationals in October, The outdoor season resumes in November so again i need to prepare for this as well. Each weekend in November I have a 2 day tournament , so that will be a very challenging month both physically and mentally . The older we get the longer it takes for us to recover after tournaments and training.
Again i really want to thank my support team, Lucia and Samantha without their support none of this would be possible. Then special thanks need to go to Bowtime and especially Luther and Sharon. both offer up their precious time to assist me. I think Sharon knows my form so well she can tell me if my arrow is in the middle or not without even looking at the target.
Thanks also goes out to Noel Robinson who while he is in JHB still provides great support especially with the mental side of things..
Of course MTN needs a strong mention. They have provided me with great support which has given me great experience and I look forward to the rest of the trips I am making in October and November.
Lastly but not least, thank you to those who supported me financially at the beginning of the year. This gave me a great foundation to work from with quality equipment.