By: Rodney Pienaar
The Namibian Archery in Schools Program will send off 32 archers to take part in the African Championship scheduled for May in the Western Cape, South Africa.
The archers will compete against teams from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana, Karola Marais secretary of NASP said.
“The competition amongst the top NASP archers in the country was never so tight. Average scores are very high and the standard of the sport in Namibia is ever increasing. NASP Namibia is moving forward in leaps and bounds,” she said.
NASP recently hosted its 3rd annual shoot in Gobabis, where a total of 122 archers took part in the competition.
Archers came from 14 schools and clubs across Namibia.
School archery as a sport is one big family and it draws immense support from parents, grandparents, siblings and friends, Marais said.
“Apart from the serious business of letting the arrows fly straight, it was a festive “family” gathering. With enough shade, the perfectly cut lawn of the sports grounds and delicacies served by the Cattle Country food stall all contributing to the atmosphere,”
“An archer shoots five arrows per round for six rounds and this is called a flight. A flight has a maximum score of 300. On a competition day, three flights are shot on 80 cm paper targets and are called the bull’s eye round. One flight is also shot on animal targets at different distances to simulate hunting. This is called the animal round,” she said.
