The prestigious 2018 IFAA World Field Archery Championships bore witness to an anomaly of sorts when a wildcard entry stunned some of the world’s top archers with his accuracy on the biggest stage. The event took place at the Elgro River Lodge from 8 to 12 October.

In the midst of 400 of the world’s top field archers from 26 countries, Potchefstroom’s Marksman Archery Club sharpened their eye on the target with an overall third place in the Adult Male Bowhunter Unlimited category.

The well-known Protea archer and former world champion, Leon Heydenrych, was pleased with Marksman Archery’s success and the six archers who took home individual medals. They were Leon Heydenrych, P.W. Botes, Jonathan Immelman, Vicky van Zyl, Marko Janse van Vuuren and Christiaan Pretorius.

The 11-year-old Immelman was one of the stars who shot his way to gold to become a world champion in his age group in the Traditional Cub category.

‘Jonathan is one of the youngest members of our club and he did us proud. He won with such big margin that he could’ve skipped a day and still would’ve won. He was untouchable,’ enthused Heydenrych.

According to him, the archers had to shoot 28 targets with four arrows per target on four courses during five sweltering days.

‘South Africa once again took the World Championship in various categories with the United States, United Kingdom and Namibia also shooting well,’ he added.
‘I didn’t have huge expectations before the championships but I just knew this was a really fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our archers to get exposure on the biggest stage.
‘A World Championship event this close to Potch does not happen often so I am glad they took their opportunities.
‘The team showed real dedication and a winning mindset,’ he said.