Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Wade Hudson To Test The Best In Argentina

Gunnedah archer, Wade Hudson, will fulfill a long held dream when he flies out of the country early next week headed for Argentina where he will represent Australia at the 2012 IFAA World Field Archery Championships. Hudson has been in stellar form over the last couple of years and has been selected in the official Australian seven member team to contest the Team of Nations event at the World Championships to be held in the city of Mirimar, Argentina. Mirimar is located 450 kilometre’s south of the capitol, Buenos Aires along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and is a popular tourist area in Argentina. The week long event commences on October 28th and finishes with the medal presentations on November 3rd. Australia won the prestigious Team of Nations trophy at the 2010 World Championships held in Dahn, Germany for the first time and will be seeking to repeat the effort in Argentina. Hudson who will be competing in the Bowhunter Compound division will be chasing team glory as well as looking for individual honours in his first taste of archery on foreign soil. Over the last few years Hudson has proven himself Australia’s best Bowhunter Compound archer at Pacific Region and Australian Championships and is looking forward to the challenge of taking on the world’s best field archers in Argentina. The International Field Archery Championships are a true test of archery ability and stamina with the event conducted over five consecutive days with archers required to shoot a minimum total of 476 scoring arrows. Each day will consist of 28 targets set in natural bush settings, with extreme uphill and downhill shots a feature of past World Championships, sure to be part of the courses. Namoi Valley Archers are extremely proud of Hudson’s selection as he becomes only the second archer from Gunnedah to be a member of an Australian Team of Nations squad joining Steve Jaeger who represented Australia in the 2006 Team of Nations event held in Hervey Bay, Queensland. Hudson joins the elite group of Gunnedah archers who have competed in a World Championship on foreign soil, Matt Wittman, Ken and Shane Thompson in Dahn, Germany 2010 (IFAA) and Steve Jaeger in Sopron, Hungary 2006 (3D).

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Boundary Range Tested Locals

Namoi Valley Archers held a 2 round ABA event On Sunday with a good field taking to the Boundary Range in perfect weather conditions. Course designers, Bernie Hayne and Nathan Murrell, completely redesigned the range presenting a very challenging layout with cleverly crafted target placement making high scoring difficult with Haylee Murrell the only archer to break a club record on the day. Greg Donovan finished the day as the highest scoring archer winning the Sighted division by just 2 points after an epic struggle with Matt Sinclair with Bernie Hayne finishing third. Ann Stubbs was in sensational form scoring a memorable win in a very competitive Compound event putting together 2 excellent rounds to record the win from Karen Hudson with Wendi Murrell also shooting well to finish third. Darrell Hudson and Peter Stubbs went head to head in the Traditional contest with Hudson just prevailing after an enthralling battle with Brett Wheatley in third. The next club shoot will be held on October 21. Scores. Sighted - Greg Donovan 758, Matt Sinclair 756, Bernie Hayne 748, Gordon White 742, Sebastian Donovan 740, John Finn 732, Stuart Dolbel 730, Mark Stevenson 632, Denise Stevenson 630, Mel Sinclair 592, John Clark 364, Greg Scott 262. Compound - Ann Stubbs 598, Karen Hudson 592, Wendi Murrell 588, Neville White 536, Sharon Boyd 442, Kate Harns 306. Traditional - Darrell Hudson 560, Peter Stubbs 548, Brett Wheatley 238. Junior Sighted - Lachlan Boyd 594. Cub Compound – Haylee Murrell 662, Kaytlyn Murrell 614, Gordon Harns 290, Emylie Murrell 114. Little Archer - Connor Wheatley 292. Namoi Valley Archers was represented by a 6 member team at the NSW State ABA Championships held in Tumut over the October long weekend. Competitions endured freezing temperatures and abysmal weather conditions during Saturday’s 2 rounds with intermittent sleet and small hail storms sweeping across the ranges. Despite the weather conditions some good scores were posted with Darrell Hudson winning the NSW State A grade Recurve crown with a wonderful display of precision archery. Hudson shot well during the worst of the weather on Saturday and lit up the course on Sunday with 2 superb rounds. Clubmate Peter Stubbs also shot well to finish with the silver medal in the same event. Karen Hudson finished with the silver medal in the Compound Masters event finishing behind the multiple Australian representative, Canberra archer Coralie Volgyesi in a high class contest. Ann Stubbs also finished with silver in the Compound A grade event finishing strongly over the final 2 rounds. Mark Stevenson scored the gold medal in the Longbow C grade event shooting consistently across the four rounds with Denise Stevenson rounding out the medal haul with gold in Freestyle Limited after a strong performance across the weekend.