Junior

Youth Festival: The Best Week for Junior Archers

Hi Junior Welsh archers! My name is Callum and I represented Wales at the 2022 Archery GB Youth Festival.  I thought it would be a good idea to tell you about what a great experience the Youth Festival is and I’m sure Molly Jones who also represented Wales would agree that it is the best week for Junior archers in the UK.

Day 1

Qualification starts today. The whole length of the competition field is used and is such a brilliant site to see all the archers lined up.  This is where you start to meet the archers shooting around you and you get to know your target mates. In the afternoon we were put into random team round robins.  This is such great fun, and you will get to meet even more archers in your age group.  You will also get your first chance to practice coming on and off the line and rotating with your teammates.  By the end of day one you will have met a lot of new friends!

Day 2

Day two everyone is put into their proper mixed team and teams for the Festival Championships.  The morning was the mixed team eliminations, and the afternoon was the team eliminations.  Again, you will be on teams with new people and it's great because being a part of a team you have your cheering squad and those of your new teammates! Believe me there is A LOT of cheering going on!  At the end of the second day are the International team events, and this is where I really want to encourage you to apply next year and help make a great Welsh squad! This year there was only myself and Molly and I am happy to say we both won the individual Championships for our bow types! We were then paired with two other archers so that we could compete in the team event.  The cheering is even louder now with an entire nation behind you! 

Day 3

Day three is the individual eliminations.  I think this is great preparation for future head to head events you might attend.  To note this is exactly what all the world class archers are doing at world cup events.  Once the eliminations are done it's on to another afternoon of fun mixed team random round robins and another chance to meet another new archer!

Day 4

After three days of full-on archery on the main field it's now time to move to the Orangery for the Team Gold medal matches.  If you have ever watched any archery on Youtube then you will see that the Youth Festival is set up the same way with only two targets, cameras, tv monitors, and commentators!  This is just like the best archers in the world! Archers will warm up on the main field and will be called and walked down to the Orangery to the waiting area before being announced to the main competition stage. Is it a bit nerve racking? Yes! But you now have your team and a coach to help keep you calm, focused but to also enjoy the occasion! You also have all the people you met so far cheering for you!

Day 5

Day five is the Bronze and Gold medal matches on the Orangery.  Again, a great experience and something I hope all of you will get to experience at Youth Festival!

I think Molly, and anyone who has been to the Youth Festival before, would agree that Youth Festival is the best week for meeting new friends, enjoying everything archery, and having a load of fun! So next year let's get a full Welsh Squad there and show them our Welsh spirit!!

Go Archery!

Callum Piggott

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