Bedfordians have been on the podium in the past week, as a Bedfordshire archery team won a gold medal in the Barebow competition at the recent National County Team Championships.
Taking place at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Shropshire, the National County Team Championships (NCTC) is an annual event hosted by Archery GB across four bowtypes, and is considered one of the largest national archery competitions in the UK.
Bedford’s Illaria Knibb, who trains at Clophill Archery Club, was part of the female barebow team, alongside her Clophill-based teammate, Sarah Russell and Kestrel Archery Club’s, Nicole Henniker.
Day one started with the WA720 qualifier, which helped decide the initial rankings for the afternoons head-to-head matches.
The men’s team finished first in qualifying, with a combined score of 1821, while the women qualified second with a score of 1695. These scores established the tiers that would be used for Day 2.
In the afternoon, the men’s team fought their way to the gold medal match, losing to Norfolk, leaving the men’s team with a silver medal for day one.
The women’s team only just lost out on a podium place finishing fourth in the women’s team barebow.
The qualification scores from the morning placed the Bedfordshire Tier One team – including Bedford’s Knibb – and Tier Two teams in the first seedings, while the Tier Three team were seeded fourth.
The afternoon brought more success with podiums for all the tiers, helping Bedfordshire claim the overall barebow county team championships gold.
“It was fantastic being part of such a supportive and enthusiastic team”, said team member, Sarah Russell.
“I think we all had so much confidence in each other, that it took the pressure off and gave us all room to enjoy the event, which also helped us perform and win medals.
“The barebow category has grown incredibly in the past two years, and I expect it to continue. I think the Bedfordshire team will continue to raise the bar and I’m excited to see what the team will achieve next year.
“It was an absolute honour to shoot with such a fantastic team and I really hope to get the opportunity to do so again.”
More information on the Bedfordshire County Archery Association and their future events can be found here.
