A gripping?battle between Emaro Bynoe and Vishal Singh proved to be one of the highlights of the Barbados Archery Association’s National Indoor Championships at the Barbados Community College on Sunday.
So intense was the shoot-out for the recurve bow junior men that with the two competitors still equal after regular competition and two shoot-offs, a one-shot decider was used which saw Bynoe taking the title.
Raveena Mahabir proved to be the star of the weekend when she won the recurve bow women from Charlene Goddard in the finals.
In one of her preliminary “ends”, Mahabir scored a maximum 30. In three shots she hit perfect tens that could not be matched by any of the other 19 competitors.
Kirk Smith captured the men’s compound bow for the fourth successive year by defeating Richard Morris in the finals.
The compound bow masters men’s crown went to Roger Gall, who got the better of BAA president John Annel.
The women’s category was won by Judith Magras, who faced and outshot Martha Padmore in the finals.
The recurve bow men created some tremors when 13-year-old Brandon Field knocked out the experienced Pedro Thomas. Unfortunately, Field had to settle for the bronze, with the confident Dillon Rice taking the gold and Allan Franklin the silver.
Annel, while praising the performances of the archers, pointed to the success which was already coming through from the recent course that was conducted by international coach Cindy Devilacqua.
“Both Mahabir and Rice were two of Devilacqua’s students during the recent course which was attended by 19 local archers as well as one student from Trinidad and Tobago.
“The approach to competition and the mental and physical game of the archers this weekend showed that they are already implanting the teachings from the course,” Annel said.
“Once our archers continue to build on what Devilacqua spent the week teaching in the classroom and on the range, Barbados could be on track for more regional and international medals in archery,” he added. (KB)
