The WFAA Welsh & Open Championships

This weekend, Red Kite Archers hosted the WFAA Welsh & Open Championships at their course in Broad Oaks, Carmarthenshire. It was a 2 day shoot, with a Field and a Hunter round on their course which has recently been reclassified as a 4.5/5 on the difficulty scale – the hardest course the WFAA have run to date so we were in for a treat!

The weather was pretty good, a little cloudy but warm and very strangely – no wind! Anybody familiar with Red Kite will tell you how fierce the wind is on that course, it is usually blowing a gale on the top end of the course but there wasn’t a breath of wind all day. We did have one torrential shower that really came down hard but it lasted all of 10 minutes and it was sunny after that for the rest of the round.



The shooting was tight! We must have killed at least a dozen nocks/pins between us!

 

I shot really well and put in almost identical scores for both halves, finishing on 534/560 which is only 2 points off my personal best and put me ahead in 1^st place. With day 1 behind us, it was time to relax and a few of us from the WFAA camped overnight at the course. Pitching took seconds with my trusty little popup tent and I spent the evening enjoying a few ales in the evening sun. Bliss!

 

We rose bright and early on day 2, packed away the camping gear and got everything ready for the Hunter round . I put in another solid round with consistent shooting, there were 1 or 2 poor targets in the first half but I settled down and made a good recovery in the second half only dropping 10 points and closed out the round on 533 points.

The results went in while we packed everything away and then we were called to the awards. The results were announced, and I had won! I am now the WFAA Welsh & Open AMFU Champion!

A good day for team Wales Archery!

 

I was absolutely thrilled with this result and I would probably rate these as the strongest rounds I have shot to date. My personal bests for Field and Hunter rounds are 538/536 respectively and I shot 534/533 this weekend. My pb’s were shot on a literally flat course with no slopes or angles in great weather, and these scores were shot on a very challenging course.

I have been training recently and working hard on improving my form, anchor and release to get them more consistent and it seems to be paying off. The big one - the UK & Ireland Field Archery Championships are in 2 weeks time at my home club, Pentref Bowmen and I am really looking forward to it now after this result Bring it on!