Namoi Valley Archers sent a 9 member team to the Australian Field Archery Championships held in Mildura over the Easter weekend. The tournament was held over 4 days with 2 field archery disciplines contested, The ABA national round and the ABA 3D round with the team returning with 7 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals across the two events. In an amazing turn of events the organizers were forced to cancel the 2nd round of the 3D event on Friday afternoon when a huge dust storm which originated in South Australia enveloped the Mildura area, a region that was just recovering from major flooding. Phillip Greenwood scored double gold after winning the Veterans Barebow in both the ABA and 3D events shooting with great consistency over the four days. Coonabarabran based Greenwood travels plenty of kilometres to shoot with the Gunnedah club every fortnight and this result was just reward for his hard work and dedication to the sport. In the ABA event Darrell Hudson bounced back to his best form to score the gold medal in Recurve A grade with a superb performance across the four rounds. Hudson held the lead after the first round but was overtaken in the second round and was still trailing going into the final round but stormed to the lead in the last round to finish a narrow 2 point victor after a memorable contest. Mark Stevenson scored double gold winning in the Freestyle Recurve division with a fine display of archery, a feat repeated by Denise Stevenson in Freestyle Limited Compound. Ann Stubbs was another archer to shine across both disciplines finishing with the bronze medal in both the ABA and 3D events in the very competitive Womens A grade compound divison. Peter Stubbs showed his liking for the 3D targets finishing with a top class final round to grab the silver medal in Recurve A grade in a very satisfying display. Karen Hudson was another archer who enjoyed the 3D event rounding out the medal haul with a hard earned bronze medal in Womens Masters Compound. Hudson was disappointed with her showing in the ABA event but showed plenty of mental toughness to bounce back to form and confirm her place among the elite female compound archers in Australia.
The focus returned to club action on Sunday with competitors taking to the IFAA range for a 28 target Animal round. Barebow compound archer, Wade Hudson, turned in a truly amazing round shooting brilliantly to finish the day as the second highest scorer overall with only one sighted shooter beating his score. This round was the start of Hudson’s buildup to the World IFAA Championships to be held In Argentina later in the year and based on this display he looks right on track for a big performance. Karen Hudson finished in second place with Ann Stubbs in third. Greg Donovan led the sighted shooters home finishing just 2 points in front of his son, Sebastian with John Clark in third. Darrell Hudson was the best of the traditional archers with Peter Stubbs in second and Jarrod Stubbs in third.
