Grahamstown’s archery sensation, Yashin Naidoo, has again rewritten the record books while he is working towards the 2018 Youth Olympics. This time Yashin has accomplished a record in a new division.
Grahamstown’s archery sensation, Yashin Naidoo, has again rewritten the record books while he is working towards the 2018 Youth Olympics. This time Yashin has accomplished a record in a new division.
Yashin moved up to the Recurve Cadet Men’s Division at the end of April this year, after shooting in the Recurve Boys U15. Cadet is for U17 archers.
Yashin is 15 year’s old. Shooting in the new division also means Yashin is now eligible to qualify for continental and international events, as it is an official World Archery category.
While Yashin is not focused on the 2016 Olympics, he and his coach, Johan Steyn, are working towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a long term goal.
However, leading up to 2020 Olympics, Yahin is currently working towards the 2016 and 2017 Youth World Cup. His focus will then shift to the 2018 Youth Olympics as well as the World Cup 2018 and 2019 events.
“I want to get as much international experience as possible. Young archers from other countries all start shooting on the international line at a young age, just for the experience,” said Yashin.
According to Yashin’s mom Stacey van Schalkwyk, “Based on the scores he has submitted over the past two months from official tournaments, he now qualifies to attend the 11th African Archery Championships”.
The African Archery champs take place in Windhoek, Namibia from 28 to 31 January 2016.
Van Schalkwyk said the qualification criteria for the African Champs is based on “qualification scores attained between 01-05-2015 and 01-11-2015 in official World Archery sanctioned events held in South Africa”.
Yashin was short of one score, which he obtained at the KPAC Quattro 720 tournament, held at Kings Park in Durban over the past weekend.
He also went on to shoot a National record in the Recurve Cadet Men Category on the second day of the tournament, shooting a distance of 60m. Read more about Yashin's achievements on page 31.
