It was keen com­pe­ti­tion in the Na­tion­al Open In­door Archery Cham­pi­onships as ten clubs tus­sled at the Cen­tral Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Ch­agua­nas, last week­end. A to­tal of 72 archers took aim at glo­ry in the first se­nior cham­pi­onships of the year.

Among the Re­curve Men, Elite Archery Club’s Daniel Joseph nar­row­ly beat Sher­win Fran­cis from South Ar­rows Archery Club to win gold. Joseph shot a score of 530 while Fran­cis shot 532. Among the women in the Re­curve di­vi­sion, Re­an­na Chu­ra­man, al­so from Elite Archery Club, blazed the field with 456. So­nia Thomp­son (395) from Points Archery Club was a dis­tant sec­ond, hav­ing to set­tle for sil­ver.

The Com­pound Men di­vi­sion al­so pro­duced some scin­til­lat­ing archery with the vet­er­an Pe­ter Kong top­ping the six-man field with 550. His much younger op­po­nent in Or­lan­do Radix came in sec­ond with 558. Among the ladies, South Ar­rows Archery Club’s Briean­na Ali nicked Acad­e­my Archery’s Joanne Yates to win the gold.

The medals were shared among the top clubs of the cham­pi­onships, such as the com­pe­ti­tion be­tween the archers. Elite Archery Club fin­ished on top of the medals ta­ble with two gold and sil­ver while South Ar­rows Archery Club had the same num­ber. Third on the ta­ble was Cen­tral Pre­ci­sion Archery Club with a gold, sil­ver and four bronze.

While in­door archery isn’t the more pop­u­lar of the two forms here in T&T, a ma­jor rea­son for this cham­pi­onship is that the T&T Tar­get Archery Fed­er­a­tion en­rols its archers in the Mul­ti-Sites In­door Cham­pi­onships of the Amer­i­c­as. It’s an in­ter­na­tion­al tour­na­ment where coun­tries from the west­ern hemi­sphere shoot from Jan­u­ary to April and then send its scores to the event co­or­di­na­tor. It is then ranked against each oth­er. Last year, Daniel Cata­riz-Rag­bir won the Men’s Re­curve for T&T. He wasn’t present at this in­door cham­pi­onship as he is in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic train­ing ahead of the Pan Am Games lat­er this year.

Re­sults

Re­curve Men

1 Daniel Joseph (Elite Archery Club)

2 Sher­win Fran­cis (South Ar­rows Archery Club)

3 Rahul Ma­habir (Points Archery Club)

Re­curve Women

1 Re­an­na Chu­ra­man (Elite Archery Club)

2 So­nia Thomp­son (Points Archery Club)

3 Lisa Ma­habir (Cen­tral Pre­ci­sion Archery Club)

Re­curve Mas­ter Men

1 Nigel Gar­cia (South Ar­rows Archery Club)

2 Kurt Mey­er (Elite Archery Club)

3 Khalid Sala­mat (Cen­tral Pre­ci­sion Archery Club)

Re­curve Mas­ter Women

1 Stel­la Tay­lor (South Ar­rows Archery Club)

Com­pound Men

1 Pe­ter Kong (Acad­e­my Archery Club)

2 Or­lan­do Radix (Cen­tral Pre­ci­sion Archery Club)

3 Has­math Ali (Cen­tral Pre­ci­sion Archery Club)

Com­pound Women

1 Briean­na Ali (South Ar­rows Archery Club)

2 Joanne Yates (Acad­e­my Archery Club)

3 Shan­ta Roopc­hand (South­ern Bowtec Archery Club)

Com­pound Mas­ter Men

1 Dex­ter Lal­lai (Cen­tral Pre­ci­sion Archery Club)

2 George Vire (Points Archery Club)

3 Rus­sell Ed­wards (Cen­tral Pre­ci­sion Archery Club)