Dundalk Archers take part in National Target Championships

One of the last major competitions of the Irish Archery calendar is the Archery Ireland National Target Championships which was hosted by Wolfshead Company of Archers in Granard, Co. Longford and took place on the 14th and 15th of September.

Saturday was dedicated to Senior archers and Sunday to Junior and Master categories. The format was a WA720 qualifying round, followed by knockout head-to-head matches. Conditions on Saturday were disappointingly bad with extremely high winds.

Competing for CúChulainn Archers in Senior Male Compound were: Darrel Wilson Silver Medal, Alan Convery missed out on the Bronze medal by just one point whilst Éamonn Rogers and Paul McClelland were both knocked out in the 1/8th.

In Senior Compound Women the wind again played havoc! Lenka Halouzkova, unfortunately, had an equipment failure and was knocked out in the quarter-finals along with Adria Quinn and Emma Crosbie.

Emma was unfortunate to come up against Paralympian Kerrie Leonard of Blackheath Archers who was just home from Paralympics in Paris where she shot extremely well.

Kerrie went on to win the Gold medal, having defeated CúChulainn's JoAnn Bell who took the Silver medal.

In Senior Men Barebow: Neil Keeble fought his way through to draw the Gold medal match which was then decided by a one-arrow shoot-off, with Neil coming away with the Silver medal.

Michael Mullolly, a relative newcomer to the sport, got to the quarter-finals, where he was narrowly defeated.

There was a very large entry in the Senior Male Recurve category where, despite qualifying well, the wind again played havoc and all three members of CúChulainn, Brendan Forde, Paul McCooey and Kevin Flynn were knocked out in the 1/8th.

The weather on Sunday was somewhat better and the results were better too! In Compound Master Women, JoAnn Bell took a Gold Medal to compliment her Silver Medal from the Senior category on Saturday.

In Compound Master Men's Paul McClelland also did better on Sunday, taking home a Silver Medal. In Recurve under 18 Men, Pádraic Barry took the Gold Medal in his first-ever National Target Championships.

Sunday, some of the senior men also travelled to the Archery NI National and Open Target Championships, hosted by Lisburn Archery Club.

The format was the same, WA 720 Qualifying Round followed by knock-out Head to Head rounds. There, on a day when the weather was not as wild.

In Senior Men Compound, Darrel Wilson, shooting for his NI club, took the title of Northern Ireland Outdoor Target National Champion and the Gold Medal.

Éamonn Rogers (Senior Compound) took the Bronze Open Medal with Alan Convery (Senior Compound) getting to the quarter-finals, where, unfortunately, he was knocked out.

Brendan Forde (Senior Men Recurve) took the Bronze Open Medal. In Barebow 50+ Men, Peter Gilmore, shooting for his NI club, took Bronze (NI National Target Medal).

Also in competition on Sunday, though much further south, was Neil Keeble, Senior Men Barebow. Neil travelled to Wicklow for Wicklow Archers Summer Series 3D competition where he won the Silver Medal in the Mixed 3D Round.

This was to avail of the opportunity to do a 3D Round before travelling much further afield - at the end of September, he is going to Slovakia to represent Ireland at the World Archery 3D Championships 2024.

We wish him all the best of luck along with the other CúChulainn club members Orla O'Connor, Ryan Dougan, Mark Young, and the other members of the Ireland Team.

CúChulainn Archers holds beginner courses throughout the year, enquiries to cuchulainnarchers@hotmail.com