Schools & sport

Last arrows set to fly for 2023!

29 November 2023 · Platinum Bushvelder

Thabazimbi - Archery in Thabazimbi is a family-oriented and highly competitive sport. The Thabazimbi Archery Club aims to balance social aspects with a weekly gathering at the Koos Cronje Shooting Range. Every Tuesday from February until the end of November, archers gather for fun shooting and archery practice.

The Indoor season is a highly competitive aspect of target archery. Indoor rounds are normally shot at 20 yards at targets mounted on butts. Indoor events are held in school halls and sports clubs across the country, combining to make archery a true year-round sport. The Thabazimbi Archery Club participates in the International Field Archery Association (IFAA) indoor standard round. This conducted indoors in a diversity of shooting styles with endless variations of equipment. Anyone may join, novice and experienced archers, and hunters alike.

For the Individual qualification round, archers shoot 60 arrows at a distance of 20 yards. Each archer will shoot five arrows in four minutes on a five-spot face or a single face target.

Cubs will shoot at 10 yards. The archer may choose either the single spot or the five-spot target face.
Indoor archery is lots of fun, but for safety reasons, has a number of rules, such as:

All arrows will be scored and recorded before touching or drawing any arrows.
An arrow cutting through the line between two rings and touching the area of higher value shall be scored the higher value.
Witnessed bounce outs or arrows passing completely through the target shall be re-shot.
Hits on the wrong target will be scored as misses.
An arrow dropped by an archer on the shooting line may be re-shot if it lies within 10 feet of the shooting line.

The last arrows for 2023 will fly at the Thabazimbi Archery Club on Tuesday, 28 November, starting at 17:45 for the Free State Indoor Competition, which will be held as a virtual competition. All scores across South Africa are submitted to the South African International Field Archery Association (SANIFAA). Winners will be announced on sanifaa.org.za. Contact Chris Welgemoed on 082 921 1218 for further details.

The Thabazimbi Archery Club wishes all archers and their families a blessed festive season!

Photo: Arrows shot at the Thabazimbi Archery Club during a virtual indoor competition.

One of the Thabazimbi Archery Club’s many highlights, Dr Gary Bauer (left) and HJ Swanepoel won gold medals in their respective classes at the World Indoor Archery Competition (WIAC) held in London, UK in February 2023.

Thabazimbi Archers who competed in the 2023 indoor series: Anton Dreyer, Maya Broekhuizen, Chris Welgemoed, Mardus Ras, Jaco van Vuuren, Mathilda Broekhuizen, HJ Swanepoel, Dr Gary Bauer, Marjoné Mostert, Janco Pieterse, and Jean-Marié Viljoen.