IT was a foray into untested stamina territory for three members of the Blue Lake Archers who entered the recent Great Southern Archers Iron Arrow archery endurance contest.
Ian Harris, Ben Kilsby and Paul Freeman nominated into the endurance test which pitted them against outdoor target, field and indoor archery rounds, all in the same day.
To put it into perspective, the local archers normal event repertoire varies from 60 and up to 120 arrows for a full session on the range, 90 arrows being the most common local event.
The Iron Arrow required 222 arrows to be shot and scored in a single day across three different venues.
The day began at Strathalbyn at 9am as the 15 archers lined up for a 90-arrow outdoor target WA 60/900 event, a familiar round to the local archers who compete in that round regularly.
The initial event concluded at lunch with a break before a shift to the less familiar field archery event at the GSA field range.
A trek through the 24-target bushland field archery course in warm conditions greeted the archers, with a total of 72 arrows required.
The final challenge after a 40 km drive to GSA’s Goolwa indoor range put the group back on more familiar territory as they tackled a double Australian indoor round totalling 60 arrows, the same as a regular Friday night on the Mount Gambier indoor range.
The long day concluded with a presentation immediately after the indoor round, a full 12 hours after the day began.
Harris competed in the Veteran plus division, Freeman in the Masters division and Kilsby in the Open.
An unusual scoring system effectively added bonus points for the field and indoor sections to acknowledge those archers completing all three events.
The trio representing Blue Lake Archers were fatigued at the end of the day, but all three successfully completed the day that saw several archers retire during the events.
Freeman and Harris were in the senior division and received certificates for completing the entire challenge.
In the open men’s division Ben Kilsby went even better and was declared the overall winner of that division.
Indoor archery continues tonight at the Blue Lake Gymnastics Club, Malseed Park from 7.30pm followed by outdoor archery at Corriedale Park 12.30pm Sunday.
WA 60/900 outdoor round, possible score 900 points: Ben Kilsby 866; Paul Freeman 799; Ian Harris 781.
24 target Field, possible score 432 points: Ben Kilsby 385; Paul Freeman 305; Ian Harris 261.
Double Australian Indoor 18m, possible score 600 points: Ben Kilsby 591; Paul Freeman 551; Ian Harris 555.
