July 5, 2016 - 1:13pm - by Melissa Salisbury

Three of AFMA were entered into the JNOC competition this year, Luca, Sophie G and Aspen. Sadly, Sophie had sustained another shoulder injury and was unable to compete.

The event was held at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall in Shropshire. It a fantastic resource with sports halls and pitches to die for. This year AGB had made it the biggest event ever with 91 targets spread out across 2 football pitches with nearly 300 entrants from all over the UK.

The Saturday dawned bright and breezy with pretty hefty gusts especially on Luca’s field. There was a great atmosphere across the ground and it was fantastic to see so many young archers across the ages. It was metric day, Luca shot a Metric I (70m,60m,50m,30m) coming a respectable 18 with a score of 1054, Aspen shot her first Metric III (50m,40m,30m,20m) scoring a good 911 and setting her PB and was placed 28. It was a long day of shooting but some were fortunate to meet the GB Olympic hopefuls Patrick Huston and Naomi Folkard who came along to support the talent of tomorrow.

Sunday was the more traditional Imperial round day and the day started more subdued, most archers had stayed for day 2 but there were a few new faces too. Aspen did well and achieved a score of 925 and was placed 24. Luca also did well with a score of 955, placed 17.

The JNOC was a great experience of competition shooting with the best archers in the country. It is open to all and Luca and Aspen would encourage the juniors to build up their competition experience and perhaps consider entering next year!!

Last good luck to Team GB in the Olympics … let’s hope the encouragement of all those young archers will be a reminder of us all rooting for them back home!!!