Las Vegas 2012
For the first time in a number of years a full team of compound archers was sent to the Indoor World Championships, hosted this year in Las Vegas.
The team consisted of Éamonn Rogers, Colin Griffin, Mel Lawther and Robert Hall from CuChulainn, Dublin Archers and Woodbrook respectively. The qualification rounds held on Monday 6th of January in the convention centre of the South Point Casino Hotel. The scores for each archer were as follows:
- Éamonn Rogers 284 +284 = 568
- Colin Griffin 286 +281 = 567
- Robert Hall 288 + 292 = 580
- Mel Lawther 286 + 284 = 570
Robert narrowly missed out on the 32nd place cut by placing 41st in the over-all rankings with a very strong second half score. Éamonn shot consistently over both halves with Colin dropping points from 1st to 2nd scores finishing just behind Éamonn with end rankings of 57th & 59th respectively. The combined score of all 3 men was 1715 which placed the team in 15th position of the rankings while also setting a new national record.
Mel’s score was enough to place her in 17th in the overall ranking of female compound archers which was enough to make the cut for the head to head rounds and was a testament to the hard work and dedication put in by her, her coach and team.
The following day saw the first round of knock out head to head matches with Mel meeting Rachel Morgan from Australia. It was a very hard fought match with each point eagerly contested but in the end Rachel progressed to the next round by the narrowest of margins. Mel shot excellently and it was widely agreed that the better archer did not in fact win that match.
Wednesday saw the Éamonn, Colin and Robert competing in the team elimination rounds with their first match against France. The team did well but all agreed that next year it will be a significantly better performance with a view to holding more team events on Irish soil to improve performances for current and future team events. France proceeded to the finals and won a silver medal.
Overall it was a huge event with high performances across the board with the team doing Ireland proud.
Article supplied thanks to Colin Griffin