Local archers win gold at recent archery tournament
Marks Park Archery Club hosts the SA National Indoor/Outdoor Championships.
Marks Park Archery Club recently hosted the SA National Indoor/Outdoor Championships. A total of 63 archers filled the range on the weekend of October 14-15 to stake their claim for medal honours.
Arranged by the SA National Archery Association (SANAA), this annual event has been adapted since Covid-19 to allow outdoor venues to host the indoor format. Archers compete at 18m, shooting at a target of 40cm or smaller depending on the bow style.
“It was fantastic to see so many archers taking part at Marks Park; which was the only outdoor venue for this indoor format,” said Barbara Manning, SANAA secretary and Marks Park Archery executive member. “Nationally, we also saw numbers increase significantly from last year’s 148 competitors to 212 this year. The growth in the number of youth archers is especially encouraging because it takes many years of dedication to reach the level needed to compete at the Olympics.”
The 2023 Indoor/Outdoor Championships were hosted at seven clubs around the country, with Marks Park attracting entries from local clubs and from as far afield as Middelburg, Mpumalanga.
The tournament organisers went all out to mimic the atmosphere and prestige of the SANAA National Outdoor Championships, which have been hosted by Marks Park for many years running.
Medals were awarded separately to archers competing at indoor and outdoor venues. This has been done to level the playing field because wind and other external conditions would affect the scores achieved.
Marks Park archers claimed a total of two gold, two silver and one bronze medal from the weekend’s competition. Up-and-coming star Maseeha Kajee won gold in the Recurve Women U18 category; scoring the second-highest total score out of all recurve archers shooting at Marks Park. She was followed in that category by Thandeka Sibande who has come through the Roosevelt High School archery development programme run by Marks Park Archery Club.
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