Club members are busy wrapping up final preparations for the 2013 Hoyt Easton Australian Open archery championships which starts at the Armidale Sportsground on Friday, 2 August.
The three-day event has attracted 96 entries across the four divisions – men’s and women’s compound and men’s and women’s recurve. Twelve archers will be representing New Zealand and one will be competing from Tonga. Local members and compound archers Dennis and Jeff Carson and David Howe will be lining up for the event and will contest the teams event together.
The Open is the premier archery event held in Australia and offers a total of $10,000 in prizemoney. Individual winners will also receive equipment provided by the major sponsors Easton Archery, Hoyt Archery and Pat’s Archery.
The event is also the final qualifying event for the selection of the team to compete at the World Championships later in the year in Turkey.
The nation’s top recurve and compound archers will feature in the individual and teams events over the weekend.
Competing in the Men’s Recurve division, Matthew Grey and Taylor Worth were members of the gold medal winning men’s recurve team at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Taylor went on to represent the country at the London Olympics last year along with Elisa Barnard who will shoot in the Women’s Recurve events. Spectators are most welcome with Saturday and Sunday offering the best events to view from the grandstand at the grounds.
