The 5th Caribbean Development Competition, which was hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Archery Federation under the auspices of World Archery Americas in September 2023, had a fun-filled and energetic closing.
The successful competition, which saw 176 archers from 11 countries participating, was held over the weekend in the Tobago capital of Scarborough, at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, following closely on the heels of the Continental Judges Seminar.
With a lot of first-time overseas participants, the Guyana team conducted themselves excellently, and the National Federation, its Continental Judges and National Coach are very proud of this. Although everyone didn’t medal in the respective categories and divisions, they all came away with much more than they had expected, experiencing for the first time how a World Archery International event is organized and executed.
Power couple Jeewan Persaud and Roshini Boodhoo brought home 4 medals, all Gold, for the individual and mixed team matches
The official practice day (Friday 28th) began with the coaches overseeing the athletes preparing for the following day’s competition.
Saturday’s Ranking Rounds were shot off by all 11 countries’ teams, with athletes vying for their highest possible ranking scores to move on to the elimination and finals’ matches. In the Recurve Beginner Senior Men’s category, the highest-ranking score after 72 arrows went to Guyana’s Jeewanram Persaud. He shot 608, and Naresh Sukhu placed 7th with 383.
In the Recurve Senior Women’s category, Roshini Boodhoo came in first place with a high score of 539. This was followed by 3rd place Julie Ann Williams with 513. Theresa Deoroop’s 330 placed 9th, Bibi Salim’s 244 placed 10th, and Karin Toppin’s 222 placed 11th.
In the Barebow Beginner Men’s event, Teemahall Lall came in 2nd with a total score of 629 to Barbadian Cole Gill’s 651. Scoring 4th was Richard Dookie with 586, 6th was Courtlee Rodrigues with 536, and 10th was Rasheed Alim with 487.
For the Recurve Beginner U21 Men, Saeed Karim came in 2nd to Jared Nichols of St Vincent and the Grenadines, with scores of 570 to 577 respectively.
10-year-old Victoria Kum receiving her Gold medal from USA Archery Coach and Judge Phil Graves
For the Barebow Beginner U18 Women’s event, Nataliya Pollard placed 3rd with 205 in her category. In the Exceptional Beginner Recurve Women’s event, Victoria Kum scored a total of 472 over the competition to gain the top spot in her category. This is an impressive personal best for her since she has been shooting.
In the Recurve Developmental Senior Men’s category, Umasankar Madray placed 9th, while Samira Duncan in the Recurve Developmental Senior Women’s category placed 4th.
For the Mixed Teams, Guyana’s Roshini Boodhoo and Jeewanram Persaud teamed up to place first, while the team of Barbados & Trinidad came in 2nd, British Virgin Islands & St Vincent & the Grenadines placed 3rd, Curacao and Guyana’s Jair Davelaar and Julie Ann Williams 4th, St Vincent & the Grenadines 5th and lac Guyana’s Barebow Beginner Mixed Team of Teemahall Lall & Nataliya Pollard placed 4th behind Trinidad & Tobago’s 1st, Barbados and Curacao’s 2nd, and Jamaica and T&T’s 3rd.
Our Mixed Recurve Developmental Team came in 4th behind T&T’s 1st place, Barbados’ 2nd and Jamaica’s
3rd, but over 4th place Curacao & Dominican Republic.
The Recurve Beginner U21 Mixed Team of Guyana & Trinidad saw Saeed Karim of Guyana and Aria Batchasingh of Trinidad place 2nd over Jamaica’s 3rd as St Vincent & the Grenadines came in 1st place. The Elimination and Final matches were held on Sunday as the athletes gave their best performances for the medals. In the Gold Medal matches Persaud beat Jair Davelaar of Curacao 6-0, while Roshini Boodhoo beat Suzanne Sukram of Trinidad 7-3. Saeed Karim took Gold from Jared Nichols of St Vincent for 6-2. In her category, Victoria Kum got a bye thru to finals and beat Anandita Sameera Singh of Trinidad 6-2. In his category Teemahall Lall took silver as Barbadian Cole Gill took the gold 6-2. Nataliya Pollard took bronze in her U15 category, and in the teams Boodhoo and Persaud were given a bye thru to semi-final where they shot their way to the gold over Calida Charles & Adam Tryhane of Team Barbados & Trinidad 6-0. And in his U21 category Saeed Karim teamed up with Trinidadian Aria Batchasingh to win silver against St Vincent’s Divya Jiandani & Jared Nichols 6-4.
Final results
Individual medals: Jeewanram Persaud-Gold, Roshini Boodhoo-Gold, Saeed Karim-Gold, Victoria Kum-
Gold, Teemahall Lall-Silver, Nataliya Pollard-Bronze.
Team Medals: Jeewanram Persaud-Gold, Roshini Boodhoo-Gold, Saeed Karim-Silver
In a statement, Archery Guyana noted that they are very proud of the athletes and officials who represented the country and wished to thank their sponsor Oasis Water, along with all other sponsors who would have made it possible for our team to travel and return with their respective medals. “We would also like to thank USA Archery National Judge and NTS Coach Mr Phil Graves for taking the time to engage and pass on some of his knowledge and experiences to our athletes and coaches.”
The Board of Directors of Archery Guyana also wished to acknowledge the usual kind support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, National Sports Commission, Guyana Beverages Inc., Mr. Samuel Arjoon and the Management of Oasis Water.
In the Recurve Beginner Senior Men’s category, the highest-ranking score after 72 arrows went to Guyana’s Jeewanram Persaud. He shot 608, and Naresh Sukhu placed 7th with 383.
The Elimination and Final matches were held on Sunday as the athletes gave their best performances for the medals. In the Gold Medal matches Persaud beat Jair Davelaar of Curacao 6-0, while Roshini Boodhoo beat Suzanne Sukram of Trinidad 7-3. Saeed Karim took Gold from Jared Nichols of St Vincent for 6-2. In her category, Victoria Kum got a bye thru to finals and beat Anandita Sameera Singh of Trinidad 6-2. In his category Teemahall Lall took silver as Barbadian Cole Gill took the gold 6-2. Nataliya Pollard took bronze in her U15 category, and in the teams Boodhoo and Persaud were given a bye thru to semi-final where they shot their way to the gold over Calida Charles & Adam Tryhane of Team Barbados & Trinidad 6-0. And in his U21 category Saeed Karim teamed up with Trinidadian Aria Batchasingh to win silver against St Vincent’s Divya Jiandani & Jared Nichols 6-4.
