On Wednesday next four archers from the Isle of Man will travel to Guernsey to compete in the 2012 European Commonwealth Regional Championships.

With backing from IOM Sport Team Support, the NatWest lsland Games Development Grant Scheme and the IOM Archery Club, the members of the team will represent the Island in competition against top European archers. The teams will compete in the Euronations competition which is run annually. They will compete both individually and for the team trophy which is awarded to the best of the small Islands.

This is being run concurrently with the newly formed European Regional Commonwealth Championships with is the qualification round for archers to go forward to a full Commonwealth Championship competition to be held in 2013.   Following the inclusion of archery as a sport in the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi in 2010 (having not been selected as a sport since 1982),  the participating Nations agreed to inaugurate a Commonwealth Championships in order to raise the profile of the sport and thus hopefully  have archery recognised as pre-requisite in future Commonwealth Games.  In addition on Sunday the Manx archers will be competing in a 50m Compound round, which is a new competition round recently introduced by World Archery.

The Manx team comprises our four best compound archers - Isle of Man Sportswoman of the Year Aalin George and her younger sister, Kirsten, who are both supported by IOM Sport and who are also both on the GB Junior Compound Squad, Island Games medallist Sarah Rigby, and Peter Mumford, who will also act as Team Manager and Coach for the competitions.  Both Aalin and Sarah competed in the Games in Delhi in 2010.

Once again the IOM Archery Club would like to record their thanks and appreciation to IOM Sport and the NatWest Island Games Development Scheme for their invaluable help in assisting with the travel costs for the team.