The National Gymnasium was the scene of intense competition last Sunday when Archery Guyana’s Indoor Recurve Championship Finals were run off.
Individual Match Play commenced with Women’s semi-finals and quarter-finals where the competitors were required to shoot 4 rounds of 3 arrows each with the aim of winning the round (2 points) and competing to achieve a total of 6 points to qualify for the finals. This was hotly contested by the ladies as nerves seemed to play a part going to 5 ends but the gold was eventually secured by Narda Mohamed, leaving Shereeda Yusuf to be content with silver. In the match between Samira Duncan and Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon, the first end was won by Duncan with a score of 18-7 but Persaud-McKinnon won the 2nd end with her score of 16-5. However, Duncan won the other ends and secured the bronze medal.
In the Individual Cadet Women’s division, Talitha Kissoon and Jessica Callender went head to head with Kissoon winning gold and Callender taking silver. Next up was the Men’s Individual Match Play with Umasankar Madray, Anand Mangra, Sean Duncan, Ryan McKinnon, Latchman Singh, Mohamed Khan, Jeewanram Persaud and Nicholas Hing competing for the top spot. The same 4 rounds were shot for the semis and finals as the competition heated up. Persaud was knocked out by Madray, while Duncan knocked out Singh, Mangra knocked out Khan and McKinnon knocked out Hing to gain top spots in the medal matches.
Competition was stiff between Mangra and Madray for the gold with both men determined to win. The first end was a win by Mangra with a score of 21-17. The shooters both tied in the 2nd end with a score of 19 with each securing 1 point. However, the following 2 ends wound up with Mangra coming out on top while Madray took the silver. Sean Duncan and Ryan McKinnon battled for the bronze and after winning the first three ends and securing full points, McKinnon upset Duncan to take the bronze medal.
The Team rounds began as soon as the Individual rounds ended. In much the same as the ranking rounds, excitement between the teams was high as they shot their rounds hoping to come out as number one.
The top team gold medalists were Umasankar Madray and Nicholas Hing, while team silver medalists were Sean Duncan and Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon. Team bronze medalists were Jeewanram Persaud and Talitha Kissoon. All medals were sponsored by the National Sports Commission and presented to each archer by Director of Sport, Christopher Jones. In his closing remarks, the Director of Sport, expressed his commitment to working along with Archery Guyana and seeing archery’s development in the schools and regions. Archery Guyana’s next and final archery competition to close out the year will be the 2018 Outdoor Recurve Championships on Sunday, 16th December at the Carifesta Sports Complex Ground.
