After establishing three new national records on the indoor 18-metre distance since the start of the indoor shooting programme last September, John Pace managed yet another national record on the 25-metre distance recently during an indoor competition organised by the local archery association at its indoor ranges in Pembroke.

The new record of 572 by far supersedes the previous record of 567 which was established in December 2003 by Pace himself. Since the start of the indoor season three months ago, Pace has been producing some excellent results going on to win all the competitions in the compound category he has competed in as well as establishing four national records in the process.

However the best achievement obtained by Pace in the last three months was undoubtedly in the international indoor tournament held in Messkirch, Germany, in October where he managed to win the individual compound category out of a total of 200 archers.

Kyvin Sant, making a comeback to this sport after a short absence, also performed well in the recently local competition and managed a noteworthy second place with a tally of 541 while closely in third place with 533 was Tony Falzon.

During the same competition, Kevin Bonnici, shooting in the male recurve section, also produced some excellent scores and came just one point short of breaking another national record. Bonnici shot a score of 271 in the first round and 281 in the second to end up with an aggregate of 552 with Sebastian Aquilina and Luke Pellicano finishing in second and third place respectively.

John Aquilina and Maria Formosa also ended leading the tables in their respective divisions after the two rounds of 30 arrows each in the barebow and female recurve category.

The cadets also produced some fine sportsmanship and excellent results with Daniel Mangion finishing in first place after both rounds with a remarkable aggregate of 499. In second place finished Jonathan Ellul with 428 surpassing third placed Jeremy Mangion with a one-point margin.

All archers are in the final stages of fine tuning their equipment in preparation for the indoor national championships.

The competition was judged by John Collins while John Schembri was Director of Shoot.