The excitement was palpable for the first in-person SWWU Leg of the academic year. The competition was packed with drama on and off the range, with Luke Burch and a few other Exeter archers becoming hopelessly lost in the labyrinthine Swansea Bay campus, injecting the competition with some 11th hour anxiety.
There were close battles across the board; the jam-packed male recurve category delivered as promised, with the top four archers all posting 550+ scores. Bristol’s Alex Williams and Exeter’s Luke Burch battled it out for first place; the two perform well under pressure and have historically been very evenly matched indoors, with Alex marginally coming out on top last season. It looked as though Luke would reverse this trend after a strong first half and a string clearance issue that resulted in a miss from Alex, but a 6 point swing in Alex’s favour in the second half secured the win. The female recurve category, though less close still produced some stand-out performances, most notably an elite 584/600 from Roisin Mooney, which locked out the individual recurve golds for Bristol.
The compound category was a nail-biter. Swansea’s Dan Hickman posted a competitive score in the less subscribed morning session that made him fairly confident of victory, but it dawned on him part way through the second session that Exeter’s Nathan Chan might snatch the win from his grasp. The Exeter archer had a strong outing in his first SWWU with a compound bow, but ended up two points shy of Dan, 559 to 557.
1st place in the female barebow category was hotly contested, with Swansea’s Eleanor White chasing down Cardiff’s Anusha Mathur. Anusha’s strong first half score proved insurmountable, and she was able to bring home the gold for Cardiff (figuratively, because Cardiff left before the medal ceremony). On the men’s side, Joe Maskell continued his run of strong indoor results. The 1st place qualifier from BUCS Indoor finals last March posted a highly competitive 522/600.
Plaudits must be given to the novices who competed last weekend too. For many it was their first taste of archery competition, and they all acquitted themselves admirably.
