Home Sports Region 9’s Archery Guyana Competition: Lots of natural talent displayed in 1st...
Archery Guyana’s Region 9 Competition 2022, sponsored by Oasis Waters/Guyana Beverages Inc. and overseas- based group Friends of Old, was completed on September 26, 2022 with presentation of medals being done at the opening of the Region 9 Heritage celebrations at the St Ignatius Village.
Medals were presented by the Honourable Mark Phillips, Prime Minister of Guyana, and by Ms Mignon Bowen-Phillips, wife of the Honourable Prime Minister; by Regional Executive Officer Karl Singh, Lethem Mayor John Macedo, and the Toshao of St Ignatius, Quarrie and Kumu Villages, Wilson Laurentino.
The archery competition began on September 24 at the Wilson Laurentino Sports Ground in St Ignatius Village with a ranking of the cadet archers.
The five cadet archers competing were:
1. Chris Da Silva
2. Kevin Da Silva,
3. Fernando Adrian
4. Roland Gomes
5. Ezra Hamilton
The competition was a 10-metre ranking round consisting of 5 ends of 6 arrows. Results were:
1. Ezra Hamilton – Gold
2. Kevin Da Silva – Silver
3. Roland Gomes – Bronze
The following day, the females competed, but because there were only two archers, the competition was solely a ranking one of 5 ends of 6 arrows, with the results being:
1. Rea Juan – Gold
2. Rosita Simon – Silver
The Men’s competition was a much more expansive affair consisting of another 30 arrows ranking, elimination and finals. There were 6 archers:
1. Ryan Gittens
2. Octavious Hendricks
3. Jad Juan
4. Ted Juan
5. Junior Martin
6. John Yow
The rankings, eliminations and finals were all keenly contested. Out of a possible 300 points, the results for the high scoring and closely contested rankings were:
1. Jad Juan – 203 points – Gold
2. Junior Martin – 203 points – Silver
3. Octavia Hendricks – 198 – Bronze
The scores for Jad and Junior being tied at 203, resort had to be made to a count of 9s, after both had scored the same amount of 10s. Jad was awarded the gold for having scored more 9s than Junior.
The ranking produced a match play in which both Jad and Junior got byes to the semifinals, while elimination match 1 was between Octavious and Ryan, with Octavious getting ahead of Ryan.
The second elimination match, between John and Ted, resulted in John getting ahead of Ted.
The first semi-final match, between Jad and Octavious, was a nail-biter, with both archers achieving 5 set points. The decider of a one arrow shoot-off resulted in Jad getting ahead of Octavious, placing Jad in the finals.
Junior bulldozed John out of the second semifinal with 6 set points to zero. This win placed him in the finals against Jad.
John and Octavious then competed for the bronze medal, with John getting the better of Octavious.
The highly anticipated and closely contested final between Junior and Jad resulted in Junior winning the gold and Jad winning the silver. The match seesawed between the two archers, with Jad scoring the first 2 set points, after which Junior won 4 straight set points.
Jad came back to even the score at 4 set points each. Junior, however, went on to score the next 2 set points, bringing him to the winning total of 6 set points.
The medals were awarded at the prestigious opening ceremony of the Region 9 Heritage celebrations of 2022. This event was attended by high-ranking Government, Regional and Village officials and administrators. The audience also included cultural representatives and many fans from the surrounding villages.
National Coach Robert Singh made opening remarks which included pointing out the similarities and differences between Traditional Archery and the Olympic Recurve Archery. He noted that the principles are the same, but the Olympic Style allowed for specialised equipment and the use of skilled biomechanics that allows the archer to shoot at longer distances with more consistency and accuracy.
He also included a plea for financial support at the Government, Regional, Village and general public levels to develop archery within the region to produce champions that can represent Guyana at national, international and ultimately prestigious Olympic Games’ levels.
In the words of Coach Robert Singh, “The residents of Region 9 are born with archery skills, it is in their blood, it is in their DNA.”
More information on Archery Guyana can be found on its website: www.ArcheryGuyana.org
