Bow International

A big psychological and performance milestone was crossed by Great Britain’s Bryony Pitman in January, as she become world number one, albeit for a painfully brief time. This was after a long target indoor and outdoor and field season in which she hit previously unprecedented highs before ceding the title to Kathi Bauer in February. (The full story is overleaf in the news section). Great Britain’s recurve women have bounced back astonishingly well after an anonymous Olympics in Tokyo, where Bryony was the only member of the squad to make the last 16 with a calm performance that exploited opportunities. Shortly after that, we asked Tom Duggan, now the ArcheryGB Performance Director, to reply to our leader column which suggested that the British performance was looking distinctly underachieving compared to the…

PITMAN BECOMES WORLD NO. 1… BRIEFLY Great Britain’s Bryony Pitman (pictured above) has become the first British recurve archer for over two decades to hold the number one spot in the world rankings. She ascended to the spot at the end of January 2023, rising above Olympic champion An San after a long series of good results in 2022 and 2023. Bryony’s achievement was driven by the fact that she competes equally in field and indoor competitions as well as target. The world ranking calculation was changed to include field and indoor archery competitions as well as outdoor at the end of 2022. “Getting to world number one was one of my career goals, so to say I’ve done that now is amazing,” said Bryony. “It was a great year for me in…

The 2009 world champion and long-time US international Reo Wilde will coach the Korean compound team in 2023. He is notably the first foreign coach to officially be part of the Korean Archery Association. The 49-year-old Wilde’s multiple international achievements include two gold medals at the World Games in 2013 and World Cup champion in 2006, although this is his first permanent coaching role. “My hope is to help build a real compound programme in Korea,” said Reo. “A great base for the future of compound archery in the country. And to win a few medals along the way.” Korea’s elite compound programme rapidly expanded after the discipline was added to the Asian Games, the second most important competition after the Olympics for the nation. The Asian Games will be held in China…

The former Dutch international and Netherlands national team coach for the last Olympic cycle, Ron van der Hoff has become the Canadian national recurve coach on an interim basis. An Olympian in Athens 20024, Ron has had success as a national coach reaching all levels of the World Cup podium while consistently producing top five ranked individuals and teams. His coaching charges also won an Olympic medal for the Netherlands in Tokyo in the first mixed team competition, with a silver for Steve Wijler and Gaby Schloesser.…

The European indoors, due to be held in Samsun, Türkiye, in mid-February were cancelled due to the ongoing situation in the country after two major earthquakes devastated an eastern region of the country on 6 February. Teams had already been selected for Great Britain and many other European countries, and the event was originally postponed by a week, but on the orders of the Turkish government all national and international events in February were cancelled. World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen expressed solidarity and condolences on behalf of the archery community in the aftermath of the earthquakes. The annual event is expected to return next year.…

The Lancaster Archery Classic, the second largest indoor tournament in the USA after Vegas, wrapped up at the Spooky Nook sports complex in Pennsylvania, USA. The event, which features unique targets and a unique televised finals format is notable for the prevalence of barebow archers. Over 250 male and 91 female barebow archers competed in this year’s event, which has became an unofficial ‘indoor world championship’ for the discipline, according to some. The women’s senior barebow event was won by Lina Bjorklund of Sweden, with the USA’s Matt Hudson taking the men’s gold. Videos of the finals competition are available on YouTube.…