News from 2nd quarter of 2008
Naomi Clinches Olympic Place
Naomi Folkard
Warwickshire archer, 24 year old Naomi Folkard from Leamington Spa, will be taking part in her second Olympic Games when she heads off to Beijing in August. At the end of the third and final leg of the gruelling selection process, held last week at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre, Folkard maintained her position at the top of the selection table to guarantee her place in the three lady archery team bound for Beijing.
Each of the three legs involved two FITA 70 rounds with round robin head-to-head matches. The number of archers competing was reduced after each leg. Scoring was complicated, with bonus points for match wins and scores exceeding target scores, and minus points for failure to meet target scores. The points gained in each leg were carried forward. Folkard’s final points tally at the end of 6 days of competition was 6249.10. Athens Olympic bronze medallist, Alison Williamson (Long Mynd) finished on 6189.02 to secure a place in her fifth Olympics. The third place goes to Charlotte Burgess (Bruntwood) 5988.34. The reserve will be Emma Downie (Edinburgh University) 5749.00.
Folkard, Williamson and Burgess are the ladies who earned three Olympic places for GB at the World Championships last year by taking the bronze team medal. The GB ladies team, after a number of subsequent international successes is now ranked World No. 2. Folkard who finished 11th in Athens and was the silver medallist at the European Championships earlier this year, is now ranked World no. 9.
Said Folkard: “We all get on so well together, we’re really good friends, we train together and we have a really good rapport. On a personal note, I am delighted to be going to the Olympics for the second time”.
Tom wins Sherwood FITA - 8 June 2008
Tom and Fi Kemp took the opportunity, while in the area, to enter the Sherwood Archers record status FITA held at Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Shooting in hot sunny conditions, Tom made a slow start but shot well at the shorter distances to take a comfortable win on 1158. Fi was also pleased with her day, her score of 934 in the ladies FITA improving her PB by a whopping 155 points.
Naomi Increases Lead in fight for Olympic Place
Last week saw Leamington's Naomi Folkard increase her lead in the battle for one of the three ladies’ places in Beijing. In the second of three 2 day events all six ladies who had achieved the necessary qualifying scores competed at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
The four ladies who will go through to the final stage of the selection process later this month are Naomi Folkard 5080.07, Alison Williamson 4985.02, Charlotte Burgess 4830.34, and Emma Downie 4663.
A full report appears on the news page of the Warwickshire County website.
Naomi Smashes Records at British Field Champs
Naomi, pleased with her win
Fresh back form the European Target Championship where last week she took the silver medal, Leamington’s GB international recurve archer Naomi Folkard spent the bank holiday weekend at the All British Field Championships at Ballywalter, County Down, Northern Ireland. Shooting the FITA 24 rounds, unmarked distances on Saturday and marked distances on Sunday, she smashed the national records for the unmarked, marked and combined rounds to easily take the gold medal and confirm her position at the top of the selection table for the World Field Championships later this year.
FITA, the sport’s international governing body recently changed the scoring system, so that an inner gold now scores 6 points instead of just 5 points as the outer gold. The changes in scoring of course made the existing record, held by Folkard herself, very vulnerable.
On Saturday, in excellent weather conditions, but on a tricky course through a wooded valley, Folkard made an excellent start to finish with 371 for the unmarked, despite a miss when she misjudged one distance. She maintained similar form on Sunday on the marked distances to secure a further 367 points bringing her combined total for the event to 738. These scores convert back under the old system to 341, 341 and 682, all of which would themselves have broken the existing national records of 339, 339 and 674 respectively. Second place went to Michelle Kiddy (Dearne Valley) 617, and in third place was Heather Duggan (Crawley) on 571. Folkard’s score beat the winning men’s recurve score, 699, made by Jon Shale’s (‘V’ Archers).
Although Folkard is predominantly a target archer training hard for the Olympics, she is hoping to be selected to shoot for GB at the World Field Championships later this year, when she will endeavour to improve on the bronze medal she won at the event two years ago.
Local firms solicitors Wright Hassall and estate Malcolm Hawkesford have recently renewed their sponsorship of Folkard, which helps her attend events like this which are costly, and not officially funded.
Leamington Archers in County Match
The annual three way county match against Lancashire and Cheshire was held last week (18 May) at Meriden. Fortunes were mixed. The compounds had a good victory, but the recurves, missing some of their best team members had to settle for second place. Archers shot the FITA rounds of 12 dozen arrows.
The compound team included Dawn Leide who scored 1265, and the recurve team included Brian Tustin who scored 1180. Full results are on the Warwickshire County web site.
The next county match is against Leicestershire at Leamington next weekend (1 June), combined with the historic 157th Midland Counties Meeting.
European Championship Silver for Folkard
Naomi in action
Leamington GB international archer Naomi Folkard, was on brilliant form last week at the European Archery Championships in Vittel, France. In competition against 73 other top recurve archers, including many of the World’s best, she worked her way through to the silver medal.
The competition involved a 70m FITA qualification round (6 dozen arrows over 70 metres), followed by 12 arrow head-to-head matches, also at 70 metres, for the top 64 qualifiers. Folkard started well with 657 for the FITA round (maximum 720). This gave her the number 2 spot in the rankings, behind Karina Winter (Germany) 661. Elena Tonetta (Italy) was third, also on 657, but with fewer golds than Folkard, and Berangere Schuh (France) was fourth with 656. The two other GB ladies, Alison Williamson Olympic bronze medallist in Athens, and Charlotte Burgess qualified in 13th and 29th places respectively.
Folkard stormed through her early matches, beating Heli-Maria Kukkohovi (Finland) 110 to 95, Szilvia Bekasine (Hungary) 105 to 89, and Iwona Marcinkiewicz (Poland) 106 to 100, to set up a quarter final match against World number 2 Natalya Erdynieva (Russia). Folkard proved that she is a match for anyone when she triumphed by 103 to 100. Next up was Italy’s Pia Carmen Lionetti, and again Folkard was in superb form, earning a place in the final with 111 to 104. The gold medal match was three days later against Schuh who produced her best form for the home crowd. Schuh knocked out both other British girls, Williamson and Burgess in the early matches. Despite a good start and a 3 point lead after the first end of three arrows, Folkard could not reproduce the form which she had in the run up and with a final score of 99 to 104, Schuh claimed a hat trick of victories against the Brits and Folkard had to settle for the silver medal.
Folkard, who was Team GB’s only medal winner in Vittel, is now focusing her sights on a place in the GB team for the Beijing Olympics. She is one of six archers who are taking part in a three stage shoot off for three places. Folkard currently leads after stage 1. Team GB manager Hilda Gibson said “Naomi’s had a great week…On this form she will certainly be a contender in Beijing, if she qualifies.” Following last week’s effort Folkard’s world ranking has risen from 20 to 9.
Also competing was Leamington compound archer Andy Rikunenko who qualified in 33rd place with a score of 683 but was unlucky to be knocked out in the 1st tie-break 113-113.
Naomi Completes Selection Requirements for World Field Championships
Naomi Folkard travelled to Kendal in the Lake District to compete in a Grand National Archery Society field tournament, intent on getting her last qualifying score for selection to represent GB in the World Field Championships in South Wales in September. She succeeded admirably over a very testing course, finishing with a combined score over the two days of 666 points, miles ahead of second placed Hilda Gibson from Cheshire who scored 514. Naomi now has all the qualifying scores she needs, and puts her in first position when it comes to selecting the national team, which will take some pressure off her whilst she prepares for the Olympic Games in Beijing in the summer.
Leamington Successes at Redhill's Open American
Seven Leamington archers took part in the 35th Open American Tournament held by Redhill Archers in Wythall on Monday (May Bank Holiday). Archers shot the American round (30 arrows at 60, 50 and 40 yards) with a non-standard mini-American (40, 30 & 20 yards) for juniors. The field was very muddy but the rain had stopped by the time we started shooting and there was very little wind so conditions were pretty good. It was well attended with 96 archers shooting the American and 8 shooting the mini-American.
In the gents recurve event Brian Tustin took second place with 770, Pete Hunnisett took the Bowman class award with 738, and Paul McCarthy took the 2nd class medal with 686. Denis Folkard won the gents barebow competition with 570. Angela Cave won the ladies 1st class medal with 668. In the mini-American Caitlin McCarthy won the junior ladies competition with 716 and Michael McCarthy was awarded the under-10s prize with his 445.
Tom competes in Double FITA at Lilleshall
Last weekend at Lilleshall National Sports Centre, Walsall Bowmen hosted the first major target tournament of the season over the Saturday and the Sunday, and Tom Kemp returned scores of 1164 and 1144 for the FITA round of 3 dozen arrows at each of 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres. This was a creditable performance so early in the season, and puts him in contention for a county team place, after he was unable to attend the county trial shoot in April.
Bethany gains National Record at Fakenham
Bethany with her award
Bethany Roberts and her dad, Paul, took part in the 21st Fakenham Mayday Tournament last weekend. This is a two-day event consisting of a longbow shoot on Sunday morning, Warwicks in the evening and Albions and Windsors on Monday. All events carried record status.
They stayed overnight at the hostel on Fakenham racecourse and Paul said it was the friendliest shoot he had been to. Both days were warm but with a strong crosswind.
Bethany shot the Short Junior Warwick on the Sunday, winning it easily with a score of 410 which set a new National record for under-13 girls - well done Bethany.
On Sunday she shot the Junior Windsor, an under 16 event for the girls, which she also won with an excellent 858, which was also the highest recurve score of the day.
Paul enjoyed his shooting but didn't set any records!!
The McCarthys visit The Fraternity of St George
Caitlin and Michael try out longbow
The Fraternity of St George is a longbow organisation affiliated to the British Longbow Society and has a course laid out at Godinton Park in Kent. They run have-a-go training days and Paul McCarthy recently took Caitlin and Michael to try it out.
After a morning’s tuition they had an afternoon shooting at the Roving Marks in the parkland surrounding the house. Shots were taken in artillery form (all loose together) and individually, through hedges , over trees (though one of Paul's arrows remains at Godinton having not quite made it over a particularly tall oak) and across ditches at the various traditional “marks” set in locations in the grounds.
The scoring system is a bit like clout but with 3 scoring zones counting 12, 7 and 3 points. Paul managed to score a total of 12 by the end of the shoot but was soundly beaten by Caitlin (shooting shorter distances) who scored 22. Unfortunately even the short distances were a little too far for Michael to score, but all three thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Leamington win WMAS Winter League again
Each year clubs from the 5 West Midlands counties compete in the Winter "Portsmouth" postal league submitting teams with both made scores and handicap adjusted scores. This year there were 21 clubs competing in two divisions. The final results have just been announced and Leamington have won again, for at least the fourth year running. Well done to all our archers who took part.
Multitude of Meriden Medals for Leamington Archers
Despite the snow, there was a good turnout of Leamington archers yesterday for the annual Meriden Open American competition, the first local shoot of the outdoor season. They returned with an impressive proportion of the medals.
In the men’s recurve event Leamington’s Brian Tustin finished on 756, narrowly missing out on gold, which went to John Reace (Newport Pagnell) 758. Club mates Paul McCarthy and Perry Hughes took the second and third class medals respectively with 674 and 688. Other Leamington men shooting were Paul Roberts 712 and Pete Hunnisett 696. The Leamington men, Tustin, Roberts, Hunnisett and Hughes lifted the recurve team award with a total of 2852, just 12 points ahead of Meriden. Denis Folkard won the recurve barebow gold and Dawn Leide with 740, finished in third place in the ladies’ compound event.
There was only a small junior entry for the unofficial rounds at suitable distances according to age. Bethany Roberts won gold in her group with 740, and Caitlin McCarthy took second place with 700. Michael McCarthy was second in the under 12 boys’ group with 380.
Father and daughter team, Paul and Bethany Roberts, won the recurve nominated pairs award with 1452.
Naomi in Gold Medal Team
Naomi watch by Alison Williamson
Leamington archer Naomi Folkard was in the recurve ladies’ team which struck gold at the weekend in the first leg of the Archery World Cup in the Dominican Republic. For Folkard, Alison Williamson, and Charlotte Burgess, who won the team tournament on home territory in Dover last August, it is their second successive World Cup gold. A second Warwickshire archer, Rugby’s Chris White shot for GB in the men’s compound competition, finishing 13th individual and 5th team.
The event, following Olympic format, comprised a FITA 70 round (6 dozen arrows at 70 metres), which was used for ranking in both the team and individual competitions, followed by head to head matches. In very windy and at times very wet conditions, scores were generally low and somewhat erratic.
Folkard qualified in 9th place with 634. First qualifier was Natalya Erdyniyeva (Russia) with 649. The top 64 went through into the individual competition of 12 arrow matches. Folkard beat Rachel Savage (Canada) 106 to 96, Lisbeth Leoni (Venezuela) 103 to 95, and Bombayla Laishram (India) on a tie break after both scoring 91. Unfortunately she then came up against Erdniyeva, who scored her best round of the competition 110, which Folkard could not match. However, Folkard’s score of 101 gave her 6th place and a very valuable 12 points in the World Cup competition.
In the ladies’ recurve team event the British ladies, with a combined score of 1889, qualified in third place, behind Italy 1926 and Russia 1892. The top 16 teams competed in head to head matches of 4 ends of 6 arrows, with each archer shooting 2 arrows per end. The British ladies had an easy first match against the Dominican Republic winning 199 to 151. They had to change up a gear for their next match against Germany, who had just knocked out Turkey with 214, the highest score of the round. With an impressive performance in very difficult conditions the British ladies produced 219, which was to be the highest score of the competition, and gave them a convincing victory over Germany (207). In the semi final they met France, who were shooting consistently well, but they won by 207 to 204 to earn a place in the gold medal match against top qualifiers Italy.
In an exciting, atmospheric final held in the fort in the centre of Santo Domingo, shooting against the clock, with only a single archer shooting at any one time, the British ladies stood up to the pressure well. Italy made a poor start, shooting a 5 in the first end, and the British ladies maintained this early lead to go into the last end with a lead of 4 points. The Italians were unable to respond and the British ladies, sensing victory, shot a superb last end to finish on 207 to 196.
Folkard, Williamson and Burgess are hoping to be selected for the Beijing Olympics. After the first of three selection shoots they are well ahead of the other candidates for selection.
