Six members of CúChulainn Archers competed in the Irish Open Archery Tournament held in Cork over the weekend of 3rd and 4th November. While CúChulainn Archers is a Louth based club, it also has members in different parts of the country, including Saggart. The first day was the qualifier, which determines the placings for the Head to Head competition which takes place the following day.
In the Individual competition, Christy Banks from Saggart took the Gold in the Masters Men and Deirdre Rogers took the Gold in the Masters Women. Éamonn Rogers, in the Gold medal Head to Head match in the Men’s Individual ended up in a tied score, which meant that both men would shoot one arrow into the target, and the one who put the arrow nearest to the centre would win. Both shot their arrows into the middle of the 2cm ring at the centre of the target! This meant that they had to shoot again. This time Éamonn lost out to his opponent, Dublin Archers Mark Sharvin, by millimeters, to take the Silver medal instead. In the Women’s Individual competition Adria Quinn took the Silver, with CúChulainn’s Christina O’Sullivan and Deirdre Rogers meeting in the Head to Head’s, and, as only one could go through, Deirdre went on to be knocked out in turn in the Semi Finals, coming 4th. Claudia Heinze from Saggart took Silver in the Women’s Individual Barebow competition.
The Team events were next up, and in the Masters Mixed Doubles, Christy and Deirdre took Gold. In the Senior Mixed Doubles, Adria and Éamonn took Bronze, having tied the final score with the team from NUIG. As both teams shot the same score, another one arrow shoot off took place which Team CúChulainn lost by less than half a centimetre. In the Senior Women’s Team event, Christina, Adria and Deirdre took Gold. A good result for the club in the first major competition of the Indoor Season.
