Archery Guyana’s Region 9 Competition 2022 sponsored by Oasis Waters/Guyana Beverages Inc. and overseas based group: Friends of Old, was completed on the 26th September 2022 with the presentation of the medals done at the opening of the Region 9 Heritage celebrations at the St. Ignatius Village. The medals were presented by Honorable Prime Minister Mark Phillips, the Prime Minister’ s wife Mignon Bowen-Phillips, the Regional Executive Officer Karl Singh, the Mayor of Lethem Mr. John Macedo and the Touchao of St Ignatius, Quarrie and Kumu Villages, Mr. Wilson Laurentino.
The archery competition began on the 24th of September 2022 at St Ignatius Village’s Wilson Laurentino Sports Ground with a ranking of the cadet archers.
The 5 Cadet archers competing were:
- DaSilva, Chris
- DaSilva, Kevin
- Adrian, Fernando
- Gomes, Roland
- Hamilton, Ezra
The competition was a 10 metre ranking round consisting of 5 ends of 6 arrows. Results were:
- Ezra Hamilton – Gold
- Kevin Da Silva – Silver
- Roland Gomes – Bronze
The following day the females competed but because there were only 2 archers the competition was solely a ranking one of 5 ends of 6 arrows with the results being:
- Juan, Rea – Gold
- Simon, Rosita – Silver
The Men’s competition was a much more expansive affair consisting of another 30 arrows ranking, elimination and finals.
There were 6 archers:
- Gittens, Ryan
- Hendricks, Octavious
- Juan, Jad
- Juan, Ted
- Martin, Junior
- Yow, John
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:
- Jad Juan – 203 points – Gold
- Junior Martin – 203 points – Silver
- Octavia Hendricks – 198 – Bronze
The scores for Jad and Junior being tied at 203 had to go to a count of 9s after both had scored the same amount of 10s, after which Jad was awarded the gold for having scored more 9s than Junior.
The ranking produced a match play whereby 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-finals 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 specialized 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, Villages and general public levels to develop archery within the region to produce champions that can represent Guyana at a National, International and ultimately at the 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