Two Gr. 11 learners from Kimberley, Nurah Isaacs and Tyra Adams, respresented the Northern Cape and the country at the International Africa Genesis Archery Federation Tournament.
During this event on Saturday, 10 December, archers from five countries – South Africa, Canada, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe – competed virtually.
The South African junior, senior and development teams gathered in Witbank,Gauteng, to compete in this archery competition.
Tyra won a gold medal for being the winner amongst 80 participants in the development team’s women’s category. She achieved an overall score of 289/300.
The South African Development Team achieved an overall second place, with Namibia first and Canada third.
South Africa came first in the senior and junior team categories, and were also awarded the title of overall tournament champions of 2022.
Nurah had a mechanical breakage whilst shooting.
Africa Genesis Archery Northern Cape (AGA-NC) was invited along with the Northern Cape Department of Sports, Arts and Culture to attend the Kalahari Sports Festival in November in Askham.
At this event, archery was among the new sports introduced to over 200 learners from Askham and the adjacent communities.
Some of the San got an opportunity to shoot at a standard 80 cm FITA target with their own bows, as well as with a modern Mathews Genesis bow.
“Looking back on 2022, archery in the Northern Cape hit many bull’s eyes,” says Dawid de Greeff, provincial administrator of AGA-NC.
Following the AGA-NC competition on 30 July, 40 archers qualified to compete at the AGA-SA national tournament in the Paarl in October, of which 31 members were included in the junior and adult provincial teams.
“I’m particularly excited that we saw Northern Cape females compete throughout the year, and for the amazing growth the sport had seen.
“We started out with only a handful of members in January and ended the year with close to 80 active members, of whom 12 archers received their Northern Cape colors in archery.”
Schalk van der Merwe, AGA-NC provincial coordinator, says they celebrate the wins they had this year, despite the challenges faced to establish a new sport in the province.
Two of the Northern Cape archers – Dylan O’Connell (8) and Lilly Heuwel (Gr. 4) – received silver medals in their respective categories at the recent national tournament in Paarl, while Tyra and Nurah were selected to represent the Northern Cape as part of the National Junior Development Team 2023.
In February, Marvin Ponton (Gr. 7) won a gold medal at a virtual, national competition. In April, archers competed virtually against Canada and Namibia and brought home seven medals (one gold, one silver and five bronze).
AGA-NC also won the bid to host the prestigious Africa Genesis Archery Federation Tournament (AGAFT) in July this year. At this event, 48 national team members were welcomed to the Diamond City where they competed virtually against Namibia, Botswana and Namibia.
– Dawid de Greeff, administrative officer, AGA-NC
