The Rhodes University Archery Club raised the bar in the last weekend of February when they won the vast majority of gold medals at the Eastern Province Archery Championships hosted by NMMU in Port Elizabeth.
Archery articles nearly always include a weather report and this should come as no surprise to anybody who has ever bent a bow.
The Rhodes University Archery Club raised the bar in the last weekend of February when they won the vast majority of gold medals at the Eastern Province Archery Championships hosted by NMMU in Port Elizabeth.
Archery articles nearly always include a weather report and this should come as no surprise to anybody who has ever bent a bow.
The blustery conditions on Saturday had archers swaying to and fro on the shooting line struggling vainly, against winds gusting up to 45 km/h, to settle their sights on target buttresses up to 90m distant.
The wind does not merely affect the archer, however, but tends to drift arrows drastically out of their line of flight once they have left the bow, resulting in poor scores from good shots and irritable archers compared to the usually calm and focused individuals on the provincial shooting line, said Pete van der Woude, Rhodes archery media liaison officer.
The Rhodes archers proved their mettle in the end on the windswept Saturday and the 34 degree heat and mugginess of Sunday by winning all except two of the gold medal places. Van der Woude managed to sneak ahead of team mate Jan Nell to clinch the Eastern Province gold in the Mens Compound division with Moira Japp easily claiming the same for the Ladies division.
Steve and Rose Prevec earned their coupled golds for the Mens and Ladies Standard Bow division with junior Rhodes archers, Emile Lochner and Etione Ferreira, taking home the U/18 gold medals for the university team and Rhys Nell and Robyn Martin taking the honours for the U/12 Boys and U/16 Girls Compound divisions respectively.
The Eastern Province Championships has long been home to the provincial colours award ceremony and saw Rhodes taking away 10 of the 12 colours earned for 2005. Van der Woude, Dave Martin and Jan Nell were re-awarded their colours for Mens Compound archery with Japp receiving a re-award for Ladies Compound shooting.
Steve Prevec, Nigel Barker and Emile Lochner were awarded their Mens Standard Bow colours for the first time with Rose Prevec accepting hers in the Ladies division.
Robyn Martin was re-awarded her provincial colours for U/16 Girls Compound division and Rhys Nell took home his second colours award in the U/12 Boys Compound division.
