Gibson and Sookoo on target in Stag archery

The competition attracted 25 archers competing from four clubs in Trinidad — Elite Archery Club, Central Precision Archery Club, Southern Bowtech Club and Points Archery Club.

The tournament featured a qualifying (or FITA) round in which archers shot 36 arrows at four different distances. Their scores were then totalled and the archers received a rank.

Based on this ranking, the archers entered the elimination round where they shot 12 arrows in head-to-head matches until the champions were determined.

On the first day of shooting, the Male Compound Bow category was topped by Rakesh Sookoo who totalled a score of 1322 gaining gold medals at 90 and 70 metre events and silver medals at the 50 and 30 metre events. George Vire and Hasmath Ali ranked second and third with 1299 and 1297 respectively. The Male Recurve Bow category was dominated by Dean Wilkins who won all four distance event medals. He scored 1165 which put him as first seed. Robert Gibson ranked second with 1109 and youngster Nikhil Kanhai ranked third with 1059.

In the women’s category, Patricia Price topped the group with Nazimine Roopnarine and Nelisa Singh ranking second and third respectively. Ana Kanhai topped the Female Compound Bow category.

The Elimination Round took place on Sunday which started with fine weather but deteriorated as the day progressed. The Male Compound Bow archers put on quite a show but it was Sookoo who managed to hold onto his lead finishing with a strong 115 points out of a possible 120 to take the Stag Championship Trophy. Vire took the silver and Ali the bronze. The Male Recurve Bow category saw a few upsets but it was Gibson who took the title as he won the final match 95 to 90 against Wilkins who finished second. Nikhil Kanhai took the third place trophy after winning the sudden death arrow after a tied match. Patricia Price also kept her lead and took the Female Recurve Bow title just edging out Nazimine Roopnarine into second place scoring 64 to 60.

Nelisa Singh took third place and young Ana Kanhai took home the Female Compound Bow trophy.

Two national records were broken over the weekend. Firstly, George Vire broke his own record at 30 metres by adding another point to make it 356.

He shot 355 in the Dominican Republic three years ago which earned him a Gold Medal at an international tournament.

Robert Gibson broke the record for the 12-arrow match in the Recurve Bow with a score of 105 increasing it from 101.

Generally, the shooting this year was at a higher standard than previous years and there were many challenges by the younger archers some of whom managed to win some of the medals.

STAG Championship Results —

Recurve Bow Male— 1 Robert Gibson; 2 Dean Wilkins; 3 Nikhil Kanhai

Compound Bow Male— 1 Rakesh Sookoo; 2 George Vire; 3 Hasmath Ali

Recurve Bow Female— 1 Patricia Price; 2 Nazimine Roopnarine; 3 Nelisa Singh

Compound Bow Female— 1 Ana Kanhai

Medal and FITA results

Recurve Bow Male—

90 Metres– 1 Dean Wilkins; 2 Robert Gibson; 3 Jonathan Kacal

70 Metres– 1 Dean Wilkins; 2 Nikhil Kanhai; 3 Robert Gibson

50 Metres– 1Dean Wilkins; 2 Nikhil Kanhai; 3 Robert Gibson

30 Metres– 1 Dean Wilkins; 2 Robert Gibson; 3 Colvin Chin

FITA– 1 Dean Wilkins; 2 Robert Gibson; 3 Nikhil Kanhai

Compound Bow Male—

90 Metres– 1 Rakesh Sookoo; 2 Hasmath Ali; 3 Selwyn Jagesar

70 Metres– 1 Rakesh Sookoo; 2 Hasmath Ali; 3 George Vire

50 Metres– 1George Vire; 2 Hasmath Ali; 3 Rakesh Sookoo

30 Metres– 1George Vire; 2 Rakesh Sookoo; 3 Hasmath Ali

FITA—1 Rakesh Sookoo; 2 George Vire; 3 Hasmath Ali

Recurve Bow Female—

70 Metres– 1 Patricia Price; 2 Nazimine Roopnarine; 3 Nelisa Singh

60 Metres– 1 Patricia Price; 2 Nazimine Roopnarine; 3 Nelisa Singh

50 Metres– 1 Patricia Price; 2 Nazimine Roopnarine; 3 Nelisa Singh

30 Metres– 1 Nazimine Roopnarine; 2 Patricia Price; 2 Nelisa Singh

FITA– 1 Patricia Price; 2 Nazimine Roopnarine; 3 Nelisa Singh.