The Archery Association organised its Senior National Indoor Championships 2007 last weekend at the Indoor Range in Pembroke. The competition consisted of a Combined Indoor Round comprising 60 arrows shot at 18 metres on Saturday and 60 arrows shot on 25 metres on Sunday for an aggregate total of 120 arrows as per international standards.
Results achieved in the previous competitions left no doubt that this would be a closely contested Championship.
A few weeks earlier, Dion Buhagiar had already proved his worth by breaking the Olympic Round Compound National Record with a formidable 116 points in a tense and exciting match with Kyvin Sant who had started with an incredible six consecutive centre shots and finally closed with 115 points.
After the first day of the Championships on 18 metres, the Compound Division ended with Dion Buhagiar in the lead with 560 points , closely followed by Tony Falzon and Kyvin Sant.
The Olympic Recurve Division closed with Kevin Bonnici enjoying a strong lead with 546 points, ahead of Sebastian Aquilina and Joseph Sultana. The Ladies Recurve category was led by Maria Formosa with 478 points
In the Barebow Division, John Aquilina immediately opened a strong lead with 408 points followed by John Gibson and Mario Galea who is a newcomer to this category.
The second and final day on 25 metres produced even better performances across all categories but, as can be seen, no changes in the final top placings.
Dion Buhagiar calmly maintained his lead and won the Compound title with a strong total of 1121 points. In the final stages Kyvin Sant shot a perfect arrow which hit another arrow already in the centre, unfortunately deflecting it to the side of the target and thus losing the opportunity for second place, occupied by Tony Falzon.
In the Olympic Recurve, Kevin Bonnici consolidated his lead and won the title with an excellent total of 1,080 points. Sebastian Aquilina and Joseph Sultana finished in second and third place respectively. Maria Formosa also managed to score over 1,000 points to achieve first place in the Ladies Reciurve Category.
John Aquilina continued to dominate the Barebow Division finishing with a remarkable 867 points thus setting up a new national record, ahead of John Gibson and Mario Galea in second and third place respectively.
The competition was efficiently conducted by Association President John Schembri as Judge and Vincent Pellicano as Director of Shooting.