Archers do well in Orkney event
TEN members of Shetland Archery Club travelled to Orkney last weekend to compete in the third North Atlantic archery tournament at the Pickaquoy Centre.
The tournament is held every second year between island games and this year archers from Shetland, Orkney, Faroe and Åland took part.
On Saturday a friendly competition was held in strong winds with a St George and an Albion Round being shot by the men and women respectively.
Shetland dominated the compound division with the men’s round being won by Billy Finnie on 816, Ryan Leith second on 795 and Jogvan Niclasen from Faroe third with 730. Martin Krusche and Ray Meadows finished fourth and fifth respectively, placing four Shetland archers in the top five.
Sara Leith won the women’s event with a score of 766, ahead of Orkney archer Norah Bowmer on 605. The men’s recurve division was won by Ian Brough of Orkney with a score of 654. Shetland’s Keith Lobban was second on 628 and Dave Williamson finished seventh followed closely by Daniel Meadows in eighth place.
The women’s recurve division was won by Anna Dunsmuir from Orkney on 588. Rakul Dam from Faroe scored 500 for second place and Shetland archer Rose Williamson was third on 472.
On Sunday the North Atlantic tournament was shot in similar conditions to the previous day. The high winds meant difficult shooting conditions and scores were lower than expected.
The round was a FITA 720 (72 arrows at 70 metres) followed by an individual and team head to head eliminator – the same round that is used to decide the medals at the Olympics.
The winners of the FITA 720 were Finnie (men’s compound), Sara Leith (women’s compound), Ian Brough from Orkney (men’s recurve) and Dunsmuir (women’s recurve).
During the compound men’s head to head competition both Ryan Leith and Ray Meadows were eliminated in the early rounds. Krusche narrowly beat Finnie in the semi-final but lost to Niclasen in the final.
Sara Leith beat Bowmer in the final to win the women’s compound head to head.
Rose Williamson lost in the semi-final of the women’s recurve to Dam.
Daniel Meadows and Dave Williamson were eliminated in the early stages of the men’s recurve head to head. Dylan Murphy beat David Kennedy from Orkney in the quarter-final but lost to Lobban in the semis. Lobban went on to win the final against Graham Brough from Orkney 96-94.
In the team event an experienced Shetland compound team beat Orkney 186-119.
The recurve teams were more evenly matched but Orkney were better on the day winning 145-130.
Medals of engraved Orkney crystal were awarded to the winners of the FITA 720 and the head to head competitions.
The Shetland compound team’s arch rivals from previous island games encounters, Faroe, unfortunately did not manage to enter a team this year. Their most experienced archer Schandorff Vang was invited to officiate at the archery event at the Beijing Olympics. It must have been a difficult choice for Schandorff – Kirkwall or Beijing?
