The Archery Association of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (AASVG) kicked off the 2024 archery season with their first ranking tournament on the weekend at the Dolphin Gymnastics Centre in Arnos Vale
The first of several events carded, this competition saw the biggest participation level yet, with 19 archers all vying for the top spot in their respective categories.
The two-day event included a qualification round on Saturday and the elimination round on Sunday. Tournament officials included Sanjay Jiandani, director of shooting; Chief Judge Brian Gibbs assisted by judge Sorenya Miller.
The qualification round consisted of 72 arrows with a maximum possible score of 720 points. This round set up the ranking order for the elimination round (knock out brackets) for the final day.
The event was held in 3 categories: recurve 20m open (7 archers), recurve 30m open (8 archers), and recurve 50m open (4 archers), basically separating the archers by their experience.
Saturday’s qualifying round was accompanied by high winds, which kept all archers focused on setting the best ranking scores possible.
At the end of the days shooting, the final ranking scores for each category were:
20m: Teneka Baptiste — 491, Naga Devendra — 488, Tristan Ballah — 474, Hakeem Hunte — 470, Joel Bascombe — 450, Arush Ballapali — 442 and Dana McLean – 440.
30m: Rayon Clarke – 535, Quincy Primus — 514, Nicholas Deane — 490, Karen Palmer — 412 Marese Burgin –394, Vanburn Harry — 349, Virad Peters – 217 and Mariel Burgin (did not finish).
50m: Divya Jiandani — 538, Jared Nichols — 491, Richol Richards – 481 and Ian Gibson – 390.
This round set the stage for an exciting final day of eliminations. Several close matches throughout the day saw the talent of the archers put on display. In the end, the winners in each category were:
20m: Gold — Joel Bascombe, Silver — Naga Devendra and Bronze — Teneka Baptiste
30m: Gold — Rayon Clarke, Silver — Quincy Primus and Bronze — Marese Burgin
50m: Gold — Divya Jiandani, Silver — Jared Nichols and Bronze — Richol Richards
Preparations now begin for selection of the National Team to represent SVG at the upcoming Caribbean Development Championships to be held in Jamaica this summer.