Bath makes a splash at SWWU Indoor Championships

SWWU Indoor Championships was a tournament of both change and continuity.  In a break from the convention of the last two years, the shoot was held indoors; the paper-thin corrugated roofing of the Exeter tennis courts can be considered ‘indoors’ on a technicality.  There were familiar faces in contention though; Bath and Bristol once again fought it out for top spot with Bath seizing an emphatic victory and a one-point lead going into the outdoor season.

Bath’s experienced team victory at SWWU champs was in large part down to their strong recurve showing; Dan Clarke qualified first in the league points-paying Bray I, with teammate Louis Huygens keeping a watching brief in third.  They were split by Cardiff’s Thomas McCarthy finished, who qualified one point shy of Dan.  Ultimately Louis claimed individual gold with a 6-5 win over Dan in eliminations.  

With Bath’s Chloe Sagun taking a commanding victory in the female exp. recurve category, it fell to the novices to inject some variety into the recurve medal placings.  Bristol’s Magdalena Kazmierczak followed on from an impressive BUCS qualy result at the Dingle the month prior, to finish 1st in both qualification and eliminations.  She was pushed all the way by Lily Barrett, who qualified 2 points shy and took a few set points off Magdalena in the gold final. 

On the men’s side, Kyumin Lee’s top qualification score was overturned in match-play, with Cardiff’s Abir Chowdhury taking the win ahead of Exeter’s Dylan Profit. 

The compound, barebow and longbow categories were mixed gender for the sake of having sufficient numbers for matches.  That meant that Marilyn Wong and Joe Maskell, two of the most competitive barebows in UK student archery right now, went head to head, with Joe clinching yet another victory for Bath. Bristol's Lucas Geertman won the novice barebow category, with Plymouth's Sean Hughes bringing home the bacon for Plymouth in the stick and string division.  Cardiff’s Oliver Coupe won in the compound class over Plymouth’s Rob Hargreaves, taking 1st in a close qualification round, and a less close gold final. 

I hope you enjoyed Bristol’s Clout hosted at Keysham Archers last weekend, a stark contrast from the tiny targets and short distances of the indoor season. 

Pictured: Bath stole the lead, and Max Vergé-Kemp, from Bristol