Sunday 12th of January this year saw Llantwit Major Archers host the WFAA Indoor Championships, at their new range in the gym hall at RAF St Athan.
We arrived at the base nice and early and had our ID inspected before we were allowed in. We didn't think some archers would get in because of ID issues (St Athan is an active RAF/MOD base so security is tight) but the guards were helpful and everything was sorted out. We were escorted across the base to the gym and got set up ready for the day.
The gym is huge! It is a converted hangar that used to house several large aircraft, so the LM Archers can shoot almost 90m indoors! What a practice venue! Everything was set up ready for us, so we went to work! I was shooting my Insanity CPXL for this one with my skinny carbons as I wasn't happy with my indoor setup (more about that in the next blog post).
We shot the sighters/practice end - all X's so on the right track... we start scoring and BAM, I dropped a point out of the spot on my 4th arrow of the first 5 arrow end.. typical! At least the pressure was off now to shoot a clean score, so I settled down and focussed on making strong shots instead of chasing a score. I only dropped one more point in the second half, finishing on 298/300 with 46 X's.
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| Shooting in the cavernous sports hangar! There's about another 70m of space behind us here! |
In the afternoon, I shot my new Impala to have a bit of fun and wind down and even though I did appallingly with it, I had a great time! It's a very fun bow to shoot but the traditional archers made mincemeat of my attempt to compete with them, fair play!
I ended up in 2nd place, losing the title from last year but I have to tip my hat to the winner! It was Geraint Thomas, a pro archer who shot a perfect 300 with 58/50 X's - taking the win and setting a new Welsh record in the process, a very impressive performance. We retired to the base rec building, Harlech Flight for the award ceremony and the medals were presented by the base commander, Wing Commander Ball.
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| All the medal winners - I'm hiding in the back! |
Not a bad day!
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