Image courtesy Commonwealth Games Federation. Article submitted by technical delegate Carole Hicks.
Following an opening ceremony that featured a great fireworks display on Saturday 5 September, athletes got down to some serious practice on Sunday and more during official practice day on Monday at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.
The temperature in Apia, the capital, is around 28-30 degrees Celsius, with humidity a little too high for some of the northern hemisphere athletes.
Competition began with a 72-arrow qualifying round at 60 metres, the cadet distance, on Tuesday 8 September.
India and England took first and second place in both the girls’ and boys’ rankings. Nishant Kumawat scored 656, some 30 points ahead of Joe Ground, in the boys’ competition, while Prachi Singh’s 620 led Elizabeth Warner by 15.
Each country was restricted to entering a maximum of one male and one female recurve athlete into the archery event, with the cross-sport squads also having a maximum quota. It meant the Samoa competition field was squeezed – but did provide the opportunity for countries that do not usually feature on the international archery scene to compete.
Africa sent a young man from Namibia, Xander Reddig – who ranked sixth, while Barbados’ Brandon Field scored 615 to qualify two places lower. As well as athletes from the home countries – England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man – archers from Cyprus, Bangladesh, India, Mauritius and Malaysia all made the journey.
Oceania was represented by host country Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and Vanuatu – competing internationally for the first time. In total, 16 countries – representing all five continents – entered at least one competitor to the Games.
Follow the example of the Youth Olympic Games, the competition in Samoa includes a mixed nation mixed team competition that pairs the top scoring girl with lowest-ranked boy. (There was some adjustment with the higher number of male athletes, to make the event fair.)
The finals of the mixed team event take place on Wednesday, and will be a huge learning curve for some of the athletes participating – especially those who never shot a team event prior to Samoa. Individual match play will follow, with finals on Thursday.
