This news is a little late in coming but it was published in the Victor Harbor Times and below is a reproduction of that article.

A fine gathering of archers representing the State of South Australia at the National Archery Championships 2018.

The 2018 National Archery Championships were held from the 3rd to the 7th November. Archery teams from each State plus individual archers packed their bows, arrows, equipment and sport uniforms making the journey to Morwell, Victoria to participate in this, the ultimate Championship of Archery Australia’s calendar for the year.

The Archery Australia guiding principles for the National Archery Championships include “events that cater for all members of the sport, irrespective of category or ability. The rounds shot reflect the history of the sport and the general activities practiced at State and club levels such as Target, Field and Clout”.

Following the above guiding principles the National Championships will include the elite archer seeking to break records and become ‘the champion’ or the ‘champion team’ to archers who have strived all year to improve their skills and are now ready to test their abilities against the rest of Australia.

The Victor Harbor Archery Club was delighted when member Pat Coghlan not only won the gold medal in both the Target and Field disciplines, but also established new National records for both. This great result comes well earned as Pat, although qualified to compete, missed out on the World Cup circuit this year due to a long standing back injury. As a well known, elite archer with a passion and natural ability for the sport, the result was applauded by most of Australia and Pat Coghlan is to be congratulated on his stunning performance.

Target Medal winners: Pat Coghlan - gold, Andrew Kuchel - silver, Danie Oosthuizen - bronze.

Great performances were also made by other South Australian archers. Pat’s two main rivals were always close by both physically and in points scored. Andrew Kuchel from Great Southern Archers won silver in Target and Field and Danie Oosthuizen from Western Australian won the bronze in both disciplines.

Graham Potts who last week broke the South Australian record at Indoor, came 6th in Master Male Compound and Attila Balla [Adelaide Archery Club] came 8th.

In Field Graham came 4th and Attila 7th and in Clout Graham was 3rd and Attila 8th– great results for both archers in a National Championship.

Three competing amigos of archery: Pat, Andrew and Danie!

The only South Australian female compound archer competing at the National was Shirley Biggs from Great Southern Archers. This was Shirley’s first National and she performed well in the Veteran Female Compound class. Shirley came 3rd in Target, 2nd in Short Distance Target and 2nd in Field and Clout – what a performance!

There were other great results from South Australian archers and most notable was that of young Rory Blake from Eden Field Archers, who chose to compete in Open Male Compound although he belongs in the 20 & Under class. Rory competed in all disciplines and was always in the top ten with his best result of 4thin Field. There is no doubt that Rory Blake will become one of Australia’s future elite archers.

#NationalArcheryChampionship #SAArcheryTeam2018 #PatCoghlanarcherandrecordbreaker