State IFAA

Namoi Valley Archers sent a 10 member team to the NSW State IFAA Championships held in Gloucester over the weekend returning with 7 gold and 1 bronze medals after a superb performance by the team. The International Field Archery Association tournament is a highly technical test of archery ability with targets set at marked distances with competitors required to shoot four arrows at each target with the maximum distance of 80 yards. Wade Hudson scored an impressive win in Mens Bowhunter stamping his class on the field to win by 52 points. This event marks the start of Hudson’s campaign to win selection in the Australian team to compete at the 2012 World IFAA Championships to be held in Argentina later this year. Karen Hudson finished the weekend as the number one female Bowhunter archer with a powerful performance making it a unique mother and son double in this division. The family connections continued with Bernie Hayne scoring a wonderful victory in Freestyle Unlimited B grade. Hayne shot brilliantly to score the gold medal in a performance he will long remember. Son, Zac Hayne, showed the talent runs in the family scoring the gold medal in Junior Freestyle Unlimited with a wonderful display of precision archery to finish the weekend as the highest scoring junior archer. Phil Greenwood used all his experience to carve out a great win in Bowhunter Recurve. Greenwood was disappointed with his shooting at the club shoot leading up this event and set about rectifying this with a week of intensive practice which paid handsome dividends. Clubmate, Peter Stubbs, also shot well to grab the bronze medal in this event. David Buckingham finished the weekend as the top longbow archer to take gold while Mark Stevenson rounded out the medal haul with gold in Freestyle Limited Recurve. The club will be back in action this Sunday with a two round 3D event set down.