Cuchulainn Archers secure impressive haul at National Championships

Headline: Cuchulainn archers secure impressive haul at National Championships

One of the biggest competitions in the Irish Archery calendar, the Irish National Indoor Tournament, was held recently in Galway. 

Hosted by the University of Galway, this event is attended by archers from every province in Ireland. This year was no different and 13 members of CúChulainn Archers also made the trip. 

The competition was very well attended and very well run. Various sessions saw groups of archers from all disciplines complete their qualification round and then go on to amalgamate to compete in the Head-to-Head elimination rounds.

Saturday saw the first sessions, with Jo Anne Bell taking the Gold and the National Master Women's Compound title.  Paul McClelland secured the Silver in the Master Men's Compound, while Rose Anne O'Donnell took the National U18 Title and three Irish Records in the Barebow category.  

Neil Kebble's strong start saw him seeded first in the Men’s Barebow competition and he made this count by clinching first place. Siobhan Kebble was seeded 8th in the Woman's Barebow, but sadly he went out in the quarter finals.

With JoAnn and Paul re-entering as Seniors, the competition on Sunday was intense. It consisted of Head-to-Head, Team (three members of the same club, same sex, shooting the same bow style) and Mixed Team (two archers from the same club, one male and one female shooting the same style).

Brendan Forde was seeded 14th in a heavily contested Recurve field and was unfortunate to lose out in a one arrow shoot off.

 In the men's Compound, Éamonn Rogers (who was seeded 3rd) came up against fellow club member Paul McClelland (seeded 6th) in the quarter finals, with Paul winning by 1 point and going on to take the silver medal - to add to his Silver medal from the day before. 

Alan Convery (seeded 7th) and Oisín Donnelly (seeded 13th) went out earlier in the competition in what was a very high scoring Compound Head-to-Head session.

The CúChulainn Compound women's Head-to-Head saw Jo Ann Bell, who was seeded 1st, go on to collect a bronze medal to add to her Gold from the Masters the day before. 

Amy McLoughlin, who was seeded 3rd, went all the way to the finals where he picked up the gold Medal and the title following an epic quarter final battle along the way against club mate Christina Rogers which went down to the last arrow. 

Adria Quinn, who was seeded 7th, also went out in the quarter finals. Michelle Williams, who changed from Recurve to Compound a scant two weeks before the Nationals, did very well from her 9th place seeding, going out in the quarters.

Then came the team events, always very popular with both contestants and spectators. In this event, the team shoots one at a time and are timed, with penalties applied for infringements.

Some of them include crossing the shooting line before the other archer returns or having the arrow out of the quiver before arriving on the shooting line. 

A judge stands behind each archer as they shoot and, if s/he sees a fault then a red card is produced. The other team members awaiting their turn must watch for this as the archer who is shooting cannot see the judge standing behind him/her. 

If a fault is detected, the archer must return to the starting point and start again - in effect it is a time penalty. As there are usually not as many teams as club members attending, the excitement and competition can be intense. 

A fault can be the difference between winning your set and being knocked out. Club members stand behind their team - but at a distance - and shout for their people.  Cheers and groans are the order of the day.   

First up was the Men's Compound Team event. CúChulainn qualified just one team, Oisín Donnelly, Paul McClelland and Éamonn Rogers, for this event. Qualifying in first position, the team went on to win the gold medal.

Compound Women also had one team qualified, JoAnn Bell, Adria Quinn and Christina Rogers who went on to win the Gold medal.

The Barebow Mixed Team of husband and wife Neil and Siobhán Keeble were seeded in 4th and were knocked out of the Gold medal match in a one arrow shoot off. But they went on to win the bronze medal in fine style.

Two of CúChulainn's Compound Mixed Teams made the cut with CúChulainn 1 (JoAnn Bell and Éamonn Rogers) going on to win the Gold medal and CúChulainn 2 (Paul McClelland and Christina Rogers) missing out on the Bronze medal by just four points.

A great result for CúChulainn, who between them brought 12 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze medals home along with 4 National Titles and 3 Irish Records.

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