A selection of athletes from the Archery Association of Malta, under the direction and guidance of the national coach John Schembri, assisted by Vince Pellicano, recently participated in a three day training camp at the internationally acclaimed Beiter Archery Centre, Dauchingen, Germany.
The Beiter Archery Centre, a unique facility, is highly equipped with state of the art equipment, and is constantly in demand by many international and Olympic athletes.
This facility provides ideal shooting conditions, allowing for precise tuning of the athletes’ archery equipment, as well as, the refinement of individual shooting techniques, with the aid of high speed video capture.
Archers participating in this training camp/competition qualified after a lengthy selection process, that started last July. The participants were; Luke Pellicano (Junior Recurve Division), Kevin Bonnici (Mens Recurve Division), Maria Formosa (Ladies Recurve Division) and Dion Buhagiar (Mens Compound Division). On completion of the three day camp, the Archery Association of Malta team competed in an International Indoor Archery Competition, held in Messkirch, Germany, on 18 and 19 October.
A total of 221 athletes participated in the competition. The tournament consisted of a Double 18-metre indoor event, consisting of two rounds of 30 arrows shot at a distance of 18m at 40cm target faces, ends of three arrows are shot, within a time of two minutes. The winner in each category is the archer with the highest score after shooting 60 arrows.
In the Junior Recurve Division, Luke Pellicano, finished first in his category, and in the process set a new national record with a score of 543.
During the 2008 season, Luke has set a number of national records, and is constantly improving his competition skills.
Kevin Bonnici, competing in the Mens recurve division, put up a strong and consistent performance to take second place in his category with a score of 555, only five points behind the leader and also set a new national record for the indoor double 18 metres.
Maria Formosa, placed second in the ladies recurve division, in her second outing in this event. On her previous occasion, October 2006, Maria placed first and also set a new national record whilst participating at this event.
In the Compound Division, Dion Buhagiar, shot very consistently to take second place with a score of 555, just five points adrift of the leading archer.
On this occasion, through the guidance of national coach John Schembri, combined with the determination of the participating athletes, the Archery Association of Malta has again obtained creditable results which will invariably have a very positive effect on the local development of archery besides motivating Maltese archers to qualify for competing in future international events.