More than 100 archers have descended on the Rhodes University Great Field to take part in the annual South African national archery championships.
More than 100 archers have descended on the Rhodes University Great Field to take part in the annual South African national archery championships.
Rhodes University Archery Club, through the provincial archery board, have won the right to host the next two national archery championships. While the archers have been arriving in Grahamstown since the end of last week, the first official sessions were yesterday.
The day started with a practice session, before an opening ceremony with the South African national anthem and the South African National Archery Association anthem being played while the flags were raised. The event was then officially opened by association president Selwyn Moskovitz.
Archers have travelled from across the country to take part in the champs, as well as a Namibian team of 17 archers, and one South African living in Australia. According to Aurelle Medalie, association treasurer, 130 archers had registered for the champs.
The event started during the weekend, with registration on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the first official practice session. The champs will continue until tomorrow.
Archers are classified in categories ranging from U13 to Masters 50-plus. The shooting ranges from 40 metres for U13 (boys and girls) to 90 metres for senior men and 70 metres for senior women.
Moskovitz spoke to Grocott's Mail during yesterday's shoot, about the significance of the event. He said the event was a qualifier for this year's world archery champs, as well as the world para-archery champs, in July, for disabled archers.
Two archers were attempting, yesterday, to qualify for the latter. One of them, Anton Swart, from Port Elizabeth, who is paraplegic, is swimming up to five hours a day and doing shooting practice for three hours a day.
Two continental champs, three Commonwealth Games champs and three world champions are also taking part in this week's nationals. Moskovitz said the world youth championships were also this year, and today's results would determine who qualified for the various world championships.
This year's field of archers includes 20 from the Rhodes Archery Club, as well as some of the country's top archers, five of whom are in the top 50 of the International Archery Federation (Fita) world rankings. The 30m world record holder, Seppie Cilliers, from Northern Gauteng, will be in action today as he attempts to qualify for the world champs. South Africa is currently ranked third in the Commonwealth Games and fourth in the world archery rankings.
