Meuwesen leading African field archery champs
Field archery
Two-time world champion Jannie Meuwesen of Namibia showed his class during the first two days of the continental championship.
The 2023 African Regional Field Archery Championships (ARFAC), hosted at the Windhoek Archery range at the Heja Game Lodge 20 km east of Windhoek, concluded yesterday. The three-day event was open to all International Field Archery Association (IFAA) members and saw over 60 archers from South Africa, Zambia and Namibia compete in the field category on Friday, the hunter category on Saturday and the animal category on Sunday.
“We have 28 different targets. It’s a great competition with a nice team spirit. I also get to meet up with old friends. I love it!” said Jacqueline Coetzee, Namibian archer and vice-president for target archery at the Archery Association of Namibia.
The event was graced by the presence of Gert Snyman, president of the South African National Indoor and Field Archery Association. He said: “Despite the cold, Namibia has been a very good host. The competition for archers and conditions for archery altogether is at a good standard.”
The competition saw archers as young as 11 years take part in the cubs division, with the youngest being the 10-year-old Lian Grant from South Africa. The latter and Zambia’s Rudolf Raath (11) took part in the freestyle and bow hunter category, respectively. Their “cub master”, Lindy Schoeman, said in addition to taking their scores, she also had to make sure “the cubs do not misbehave”.
Grant said: “It feels great to be the youngest cub as I get to shoot short distances.”
Top rankings (after day 2)
Saturday saw the field and hunter rounds conclude and aggregated.
Two-time world champion Jannie Meuwesen of Namibia showed his class during the first two days of the continental championship.
The top five spots were claimed by:
1 Jannie Meuwesen of Namibia in the Adult Male Freestyle Unlimited (AMFU) with 1099.
2 HJ Swanepoel of South Africa in the AMFU with 1079.
3 Luzanne Grant of South Africa in the Adult Female Freestyle Unlimited (AFFU) with 1073.
4 Gerhard Huiskamp of Zambia in the AMFU with 1065;
5 Chris Welgemoed of South Africa in the Veteran Male Freestyle Unlimited (VMFU) with 1063.