The George sisters, Kirsten and Aalin, were representing Great Britain at the World Archery European Junior Cup held in Ljubljana, Slovenia last week.
Despite the distinct lack of practice due to the abysmal Manx weather both sisters smashed the existing British National record (Aalin the higher scorer 667-652 claiming the record) to qualify in 5th and 8th places respectively. Both girls easily got through the last 16 matches with the same score of 139 another UK National Record (this one they will share). Sadly both Girls lost their ? final matches Kirsten to the No.1 seed Maja Orlic of Croatia 139/144, whilst Aalin to the Ukraine's Mariya Shkolna 38/141. Kirsten finishing 5th Aalin 6th.
In the Mixed Pairs Aalin was joined by Nottingham’s James Howell (Kirsten taking the day off to do the necessary GCSE revision work) In James’s first International and first ever mixed pairs competition they easily got through to the !/4 finals where they tied with Sweden 144/144 before losing out on a tie break where each team shoots a single arrow at a target 50 metres away closest to the centre wins, both teams hit the Gold but the Swedes 3mm closer to the centre.
So it was down to the Team Round where the sisters were joined by Essex Archer Sophie Brown. In a more determined mood that they were not to come away empty handed they found themselves in the Final facing the favourites and No.1 seeded Russia . The Match was to be 4 passes of 6 arrows (2 for each archer).the first pass scores were tied 52/52 in the second pass GB stole a single point advantage 55/54 before stunning the Russians 58/54 in the third, when Aalin dropped in 2 perfect X10`s at the start of the Forth pass it was all over for Russia. GB 218, Russia 211.
Aalin and Kirsten would like to thank Isle of Man Sport, Service Tech, RBSI and Custom Built Archery for all of their help and support.
Photo - World Archery European Team Champions, Great Britain, Aalin George, Kirsten George and Sophie Brown.
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