New archers wanted

Archery Solomon Islands focuses on development and future international events

BY ROMULUS HUTA

A program aimed at identifying new archers for the country will get underway in Honiara this month.

The program is organised by the Archery Solomon Islands (ASI) and will be held at the Town Ground Rugby Stadium on Saturday 11th August commencing at 1pm.

The program includes a whole afternoon of training and invites current archers and newly interested potential archers to attend.

The session will be conducted by certified individuals who are part of the coaching team from the archery federation.

“This will give the coaches time to prepare “Come & Try” Instruction Booklets and Checklists for new archers, and to repair and replace training equipment. Targets need to be maintained and another target stand and butt needs to be constructed before then,” a statement from the federation said.

The federation is also looking for interested sponsors to come forward and support them.

“Support from interested sponsors for development of archery in the Solomon Islands is encouraged.”

The training program is part of the federation’s plans to promote the code further to Solomon Islanders.

On this note, they have big plans ahead where they are putting a more spirited focus in encouraging more youths to come into the sport and help sustain its development aspects into the future.

“There are very few youth an archer participating in the sport and it is one sport where individual athletes can do very well with dedicated training and good coaching.

“Youth athletes can begin learning at around 12 years old and can compete in regional games at the age around the age of 13,” the national governing archery body said.

During the training, participants will be separated according to various classes defined by their ages.

The classes are: Cubs (13 years and under), Intermediate (15 years and under), Cadets (17 years and under), junior (20 years and under), Open, Masters (for 50 to 60 year olds) and Veteran (60 years and above).

The focus during the training session will be:

  • Recurve Double 720 round – 70 meters (2 x 320; 72 arrows) (Men and Women)
  • Recurve – 70 meters ranking round (Men and Women)
  • Match Play Recurve (Men and Women)
  • Mixed Team Recurve
  • Target Round: World Archery Double 720 at 70 meters (144 arrows)
  • Match Play Rounds – Individual competition

Being an inclusive sport, the archery federation is also giving priority opportunity to interested para-athletes.

“The inclusion of para-archers will also be a priority.

“Archery is one sport where para-athletes can be very competitive.

“There are several classes of disability and those who consider themselves as living with a disability, or families of these people, should contact the Solomon Islands Archery Association to find out how they can participate.

“The recently qualified coaches receive special support from World Archery to encourage disabled peoples to participate in archery.”

The federation added anyone interested to join them for the above training on August 11 are required to contact Archery Development Officer Andrew Lano on 7508761 or email: [email protected] for registration.

The archery federation is doing all these to ensure they have a big pool of archers to select from for the national team for upcoming various tournaments such as the Pacific Games 2019, Oceania Para OChampionship 2019 – Townsville, Arafura Games – Darwin 2019 and Oceania Archery Championships 2020 – Fiji.

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