30 avril 2012 - Challenge de tir à l'arc jeunesse transtasmanien (anglais)

Trans Tasman Youth Archery Challenge Rotorua (NZL) – 30 April 2012   Elite junior archers from Australia and New Zealand met from 15-21 April 2012 at Smallbone Park in Rotorua, New Zealand for the biennial Trans Tasman Youth Archery Challenge. The Australian team was made up of 20 archers with their Team Manager Sue GLIDDON and Team Coach Clint FREEMAN. The New Zealand Squad was 12 strong with Team Manager Mike ASHBURN, Assistant Team manager Sandy HUGHES and Team Coach David CROSKERY.   Smallbone Park is a perfectly flat cricket ground surrounded by trees but with a sudden and unpredictable wind that can spring up and take archers by surprise.   Official practice on day 1 allowed the archers to unwind from their travel and settle into their routines. Day 2 started with a 36-arrow ranking round with archers shooting their respective second distance. Top compound shooters were Sean PIANCA (AUS) and Isaac ELLERY (NZL) both on 352 points and for recurve Jess GREENSTEIN (AUS) 327.   In the afternoon the mixed teams' event was held. In the compound mixed team semifinals ‘Team Mathews’ (Ella HUGO/Mat TONOWICZ) beat ‘NZ 3’ (Iori MORLEY/Isaac ELLERY) in a close match 155-153 for a place in the gold medal match. In the other semifinal ‘Team Bro’ (Renae FARRUGIA/Jack SALMON) beat ‘NZ 2’ (Elizabeth RANDLE/Dean CROSKERY) 158-155. Team Bro went on to win gold against Team Mathews 155-154 and ‘NZ 2’ went on to win bronze against ‘NZ 3’ 154-149.   In the recurve mixed team event the results were dominated by the Australian teams with the sole NZ team ‘Team Ninja’ (Ashleigh PAAP/Yiftach SWERY) getting knocked out in the first round against ‘Team Undecided’ (Jessica SUTTON/Kane WILSON) 139-142. In the finals gold went to ‘Team Pick A Name’ (Jess GREENSTEIN/Brendon HOWE) 150 against ‘Team Undecided’ 140. Bronze went to ‘Team Wah’ (Luanna GENG/Tom WRAY) 143 against ‘Win & Hoyt’ (Shenna WU/Alec POTTS) 141.   The next event was the individual match play with all archers shooting their second distance with the compound division using accumulated scores and recurve using the set system. In the compound women’s matches gold went to Emilly HUGO (AUS, 145) against Elizabeth RANDLE (NZL, 142) and bronze went to Emily SUTTON (AUS, 134) in a very close match against Iori MORLEY (NZL, 133). Compound men’s gold was taken by Isaac ELLERY (NZL, 146) against Simon BOLD (AUS, 142).   In the recurve women’s event Australia’s Jessica SUTTON took gold against fellow Australian Luana GENG (6-2). NZ’s sole woman recurve archer took bronze against Australia’s Jess GREENSTEIN in a convincing (6-2) match.   In recurve men Australia’s Alec POTTS showed his capability winning gold after a series of bye and (6-0) matches in the eliminations to a convincing (6-2) victory against fellow teammate Kane WILSON in the final. New Zealand’s Sebastian ASHBURN took bronze following two close matches in the eliminations. In the first match against NZ’s Yiftach SWERY he was 5-1 down after three sets but managed to pull back the next two sets for a 5-5 tie and shoot-off. SWERY shot a 7 to ASHBURN's 8. In the next round ASHBURN was 4-4 against Kane WILSON and needed to shoot a 10 on the last arrow to win but could only manage an 8. In the bronze final against Australia’s Brendan HOWE they were tied at 4-4. With both archers clearly under pressure HOWE shot all his arrows into the blue but ASHBURN managed to stay mostly in the red and finished 6-4 to take the medal.   Day 4 and the first day of the FITA Rounds produced a cold and slightly breezy morning. Some very high scores were shot during the day. Top recurve was Australia’s Alec POTTS at 1311 (70m FITA) and top compound was Australia’s Sean PIANCA with a strong 1397 (Intermediate FITA). With the Australians producing the top 5 recurve scores all above 1200 they would have been hard to beat but their overall spread for their 10 archers was much larger than New Zealand and on the average NZ recurve came out on top at 1177 to Australia’s 1169. In the compound division New Zealand had four of the top six places and produced an average score of 1346 to Australia’s 1326. New Zealand finished the day up 27 points for the recurve and compound averages.   Day 5 was a little colder but no wind and near perfect conditions for most of the day. Australia improved their recurve average to 1203 against NZ’s 1176 which would have equalised the losses of the previous day. The Australian compound archers improved to 1335 but it was not enough against the massive New Zealand compound score of 1358. New Zealand took the trophy with a combined two-day score of 5057 to Australia’s 5033.   Highlights of the day was Isaac ELLERY shooting 1401 (Horsham round) to take the first JAMA 1400 badge ever. Also during the FITA Rounds many of the Trans Tasman records were broken.   This was a week of great archery from Australia and New Zealand’s best in junior archery. We look forward to the next ‘Challenge’ to be held in Australia in 2014.   Mike ASHBURN Manager NZL Team   Carole A. HICKS World Archery Para-Archery Committee President Oceania Archery Confederation   Edited by World Archery Communication