Local club, Bahamas Archery, hosted the first Archery Invitational Tournament this past Sunday, inviting archers of all genres and styles from all over the island to come out, come together and compete in a series of competitions throughout the day. The format of the tournament catered to both Traditional Archers alongside the more well known Olympic-style Target Archers, and drew over 30 entrants, some as young as 10 years old.

The event started at 10 AM with the Traditional Youth Archers competition. A total of 9 young men and young ladies, ranging from 10 to 16 years of age competed in a 6 end, 30 arrow match. With the final scores tallied, the first place winner was taken by Howard Seawell, with 2nd place going to Mekhi Cash, and 3rd place going to Cody Cartwright.

As the wind picked up, the Traditional Adult round followed, with 12 ends of 5 arrows. Despite the effects of the wind on their arrows, the 10 archers performed admirably, with first place going to Ben Jamieson, second place going to Gina Jenkins, and third place going to local bowyer Rod Hilton.

After a short break for lunch, the competition resumed with the Olympic styled Target Youth division who put on a great performance through 5 ends of 6 arrows. First place in this round was taken by Isaac Poitier with Matthew Newry and Christopher Bain taking the 2nd and 3rd places respectively. 

The final round was the Olympic styled Target adult division who showed some amazing talent as the worked through 10 ends of 6 arrows. Victory went to Noah Hayling, with Sam Albury (at a remarkable 12 years old) , and David Jerome Rahming taking the 2nd and 3rd places.

Ben Jamieson, founder of Bahamas Archery and the lead organiser of the event said "It has been such an incredible day! We had initially anticipated a handful of archers coming out for a fund day of shooting and were amazed when over 30 archers signed up to compete. Thanks to the hard work of fellow club members Gina Jenkins, Lester Albury and Rodolfo Pavon, we were able to create a true archery event that brought together likeminded people from all over the island."

Co-organiser Gina Jenkins said of the day "It's been amazing to see such support, not only from archers, but from what was close hundred spectators who came out to watch the kids and adults take center stage on the shooting line. We also need to thank our great sponsors who donated prizes for our winners. We're hoping we can make this an annual event, as the sport is becoming increasingly popular in The Bahamas and we would love to see the tournament grow to be a highly anticipated event each year."

The event was sponsored by RMS Insurance Brokers, Thyme Online Web Design, The Sports Centre, Spritz Restaurant and Dunkin' Donuts, all of whom donated prizes for the event.

Bahamas Archery is an archery club in Western New Providence providing public archery classes and membership for existing archers. The club can be contacted at info@bahamasarchery.com.