The dates for the 2022 National Championships have been announced…
Each year Archery Australia hosts the National Archery Championships. This year it will be held at Samford Valley Target Archers in the suburbs of Brisbane from 29 September until 3 October. This is an excellent opportunity to compete on a national stage and ARCHERY SA encourages all South Australian Archers to consider participating. In addition to the competition, it is a fantastic opportunity to meet archers from across Australia.
Nationals are open to all archers to compete and registration will be through the Archery Australia website this will open later in the year. There is no minimum level of skills to participate other that being proficient at the events that you are registered to shoot. We would suggest that you are at a minimum of red classification and have shot the distances for your category.
This year’s Nationals will trial a new format. In the past, the Nationals has consisted of target, field and clout events. In addition, at a different event it also held the Matchplay event called the Australian Open.
Archery Australia has this year elected to progress with a new format. The event will be a discrete target only event. We are still waiting on exact formats to be ratified by Archery Australia but it is expected that it will consist of the traditional 1440 and 900 events that have been run at previous nationals followed by a Matchplay that would have in the past been at the Australian Open.
The Field Nationals and Indoor Nationals will be run at different times during the year and, unfortunately for Clout lovers, Clout has been dropped altogether from this National Competition.
Another change occurring this year will be that Cadet and 20&Under archers will also join the adults at the Nationals. A separate youth event will be run for Cub and Intermediate archers. More details will follow. when we are advised.
In addition to the individual competition, there is also an opportunity to represent South Australia in the teams events. Run simultaneously with the individual competition State Teams of 6 compound archers, 6 Recurve archers and 4 Barebow archers compete against Teams from other States . With each category competing in their respective bow type.
Selection for the team has historically been determined using the selections rules published in the ARCHERY SA Policy library. Because of the changes to the event format, these policies are now considered redundant. Likewise, given that Archery Australia has stated that the current format is a “trial”, ARCHERY SA has decided to provide a Temporary Selection Policy.
In essence the Policy is simpler than in the past. Selection will be based purely on target scores using the ratings shown in the National rankings. For more details please refer to the selection criteria.
Recognising the cost of participation is a significant factor for many archers when travelling Interstate to compete, ARCHERY SA is pleased to advise that additional incentives will be offered for participants in the State Team this year. Members selected for the State Team will be provided free accommodation at Samford Lakes Cottages (http://www.samfordlakes.com.au/). ARCHERY SA has booked the entire venue. Accommodation will be offered to the entire team in shared accommodation format. It may be possible to accommodate some family or additional archers depending on the final mix of the Team but the priority will be given to the Team and Managers first.
In addition, archers in the Team will also be eligible for a refund of 75% of the event registration cost, as per the previous policy on participation at Nationals.
To be considered for the State Team, you must first indicate your intent for selection by registering your interest here (from Friday, 22 April).
This must be completed no later than 5.00 pm, 30 June. Selection will be based on National rankings using the ratings published on The Archer’s Diary. Refer to the selection policy for more details.
