There was a strong Manx contingent competing at the first UK event of the 2013 outdoor season. A team of 6 archers travelled to Coventry for the Meriden AC Pre Season FITA round.
This was blessed with a perfect break in the unseasonal weather of late and this resulted in some exceptional results.
Peter Mumford headed up the Manx gents compound field finishing with a new personal best score of 1287, resulting in a 24th place finish, amongst a field of some of the country’s top archers.
Dave Moore also set a new PB of 1216 despite shooting around some equipment problems with his peep alignment, putting him in 38th position. Billy Lightfoot, attending his first outdoor UK event and shooting his new bow for the first time outdoors, finished 41st with a solid 1183.
The ladies compound event was, as ever, represented by GB Squad members, & IOM Sports recipients, Aalin & Kirsten George. Joining them for this event was Sarah Rigby. They got the season off to a great start, all setting Master Bowman or higher scores. The ladies all had string alignment issues, having had their bows re-strung in recent weeks. The recent run of bad weather meant that practice has been limited and they were unable to settle the new equipment in as they’d like. However, not to be deterred, Kirsten George finished the FITA round with a Master Bowman classification score of 1306, putting her in 14th place overall, with Aalin just pipping her on 1308, again, a Master Bowman score for 13th position. However, the day belonged to Sarah Rigby on this occasion, kicking her season off with a Grand Master Bowman score of 1350, for her first outdoor shoot of the year – which placed her 6th overall. A score Sarah noted that last year, she would have been delighted to post at the end of the season, proving once and for all that the shoulder injury which hindered her last year is firmly behind her.
The team would all like to thank Peter Mumford who has given up so much of this time this week tuning the team’s equipment.
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