Right on target to earn multiple medals for UStA Archery
The University of St Andrews Archery club had an extremely successful Scottish Student Sport (SSS) League and Indoor Championship.
The SSS League and SSS Indoor Championships comprised of 5 league matches over the year, where aggregated scores were compiled for individual and team categories that consist of a variety of different rounds. The Championships were hosted in St Andrews where a World Archery 18m round was shot, and awards were based on that round.
The team had a variety of archers participate in the league, but some important names who constantly contributed to scores were:
- The senior non-compound team: Kelsey Hunt, Liam Coote, Tom Gymer and Sharon Pisani
- The novice non-compound: Adam Mullen, Edward Lowe and Bethan Williams
- The compound team (although they had only one archer in this category): John Hamilton
Kelsey Hunt, with the Recurve bowstyle is the team’s outgoing captain. This is her third year in the club. She only started archery at university but has become involved in multiple aspects, not only in student archery, but she also competes nationally, representing the East of Scotland at County Championships, and medalled in Scottish target and field championships. She has dedicated a lot of time to coaching beginners in the club, coaching Adam Mullen, Bethan Williams, and Edward Lowe (who have all medalled either individually or in a team at SSS events) along with many other novices, building skills, knowledge, and confidence. Kelsey medalled bronze at the Scottish Indoor Flint Championships in November, Silver at the Bannockburn Bowmen Open, and another bronze at SSS Championships. Kelsey also made her first individual National debut at the Indoor Nationals in December. She is graduating this year and moving to Strathclyde to start her teacher training for secondary school Biology and General Science.
Sharon Pisani, with the Barebow bowstyle is the club’s incoming captain, and an immensely talented archer. Sharon will be going into her last year of her PHD in Computer Science.
Also having started the sport at university, she has quickly become a fierce competitor. She placed silver in the SSS league and gold at the championships (both in the women’s category and overall). She performed immensely well at BUCS Indoors this year as well, qualifying second in the UK in the qualifiers round, and finishing up within the top ten. Sharon is also a part of the Eastern Area like Kelsey for the past two years and made her first National debut at Indoor Nationals! She is passionate about the sport and has also taught many other beginners in her bowstyle.
John Hamilton, with the Compound bowstyle, only started archery last year but quickly rose in the ranks. This year, he placed gold in the league individually, and winning the bronze team medal (although he was only one in the team competing with teams of two archers!). He finished second at the SSS championships and competed at BUCS Indoors, shooting immensely well against fierce competition. John is also active in field archery and won silver at the Scottish Flint Championships and is involved in coaching new archers! John will be moving to Edinburgh to start his PHD in mathematics.
Adam Mullen (recurve), Edward Lowe (recurve) and Bethan Williams (barebow) were the team’s stand-out novices of the year, having only started archery in September, but performing immensely well in SSS and BUCS. Adam and Edward have competed at almost every match, earning a bronze team medal for the league and championships and an individual medal for Edward. Edward also won bronze for novice men’s recurve at our recent Silver Arrow competition. Bethan is an immensely talented archer, having won gold at the SSS Indoor Championships for novice barebow women and contributed to team scores. She also qualified for the BUCS Indoor Finals (where she competed not in a novice category, but amongst all the senior experienced archers) and placed very high for her experience level and won gold at the club’s recent Silver Arrow competition.
The three of them will be continuing in the club and coaching the next year of beginners!
The archery team are now all preparing for BUCS Outdoors in June, and various other Scottish Archery events this summer. Congratulations to the team for all their achievements and good luck to them for their upcoming events!