By Mikayla van Loon
Yering District Archers had incredible success at the National Target Championships, seeing three talented shooters take home multiple medals.
Travelling to Samford Valley Target Archers in South Queensland, Sophie Southall, Mark Southall and Ron Baddeley represented the small, family club in spectacular fashion.
Although shooting with different bows, Sophie a compound bow, Ron a recurve and Mark a longbow, across different age groups, the trio undertook the same competitions throughout the week.
Day one was a 60/900 round shooting 90 arrows at 60, 50 and 40 metres consecutively. Day two was a 60/1440 round with a shoot of 144 arrows at 60, 50, 40 and 30 metres. The third day was a 720, a round of 72 arrows shot at 50 metres.
Sophie, just 16-years-old, placed third on day one, first on day two and came second in the open women’s on day three in her first nationals competition.
“It was quite windy [on day two], but I seemed to pick up a lot of scores. Training in this [wind at Yering] is pretty wild, so getting used to this is good for shooting up there,” Sophie said.
“The second day when she got the gold she got in front straightaway and she just stayed in front all day. She shot a brilliant match,” Mark said.
For Sophie, having done qualifying ranking events (QRE) around Victoria, as well as competitions, she said it felt natural shooting at a national level.
“Going up to Nationals I was, I guess, nervous but once we started it felt like a QRE. So my nerves were fine and I just felt in my element,” she said.
At 72 years of age, Ron has only taken up archery in the last two years, making this his first nationals competition as well.
“I’ve done a few qualifying and ranking events but this is obviously my first national and I was shooting at a longer distance than I’ve ever shot before but I was pretty happy,” he said.
Walking away with a silver and bronze medal, Ron was pleased with his efforts but said it just goes to show that archery truly is a sport for any age group.
While Mark mainly went to support Sophie and watch her success, Mark said he decided he might as well compete if going the distance.
“It’s not something I’ve ever done before but I think for me it was to be a part of Sophie’s experience and going up as a dad and ‘I thought why not? I thought I’ll give it a crack’,” he said.
“I did have doubts at times, I nearly pulled out but the atmosphere, Sanford Archers put on a fantastic show, it was so well organised and you just got sucked along with the momentum of the whole event.”
Luckily Mark stayed in the competition because he came out of his two events with a gold and silver medal.
“I went for the experience and just to see Sophie and I was just so proud of how she behaved and how she shot,” Mark said.
With over 250 archers competing in Queensland, for Yering to come home with seven medals from three shooters was an impressive achievement.
“For such a small, little family club I think we just finished a little bit above our weight,” Ron said.
This is not the end for these Yering archers, with all three ready to return to the nationals next year with the hope that more of their fellow archers will join in.
“Talking to a few of our new people here and [saying] ‘you’ve got to go and do it. So I think we’ll have a lot more people going next year to shoot and I think it just helps people step outside the square and give things a crack,” Mark said.
Sophie is looking even further ahead, aiming for the World Youth Archery Championships next year in Ireland, as well as a World Cup or perhaps the Olympics.
“Archery is wide open at the moment for young people so Sophie will be in the Olympic Games, probably not this one but the next maybe,” Ron said.
“Sophie is on her way to shoot in the Olympic Games and all that is really is getting good coaching which we have here and practice.”
Having scored a sponsor, being selected by the State Team to compete at the national level and winning multiple medals, Sophie is making moves in the archery world to be an Olympian in coming years and is shaping up to be one to watch.
