VN November 2022

Vetnews | November 2022 25 Dr Gary Bauer, who graduated fromOnderstepoort in 1990, was one of the 13 strong Protea team that represented our country. After years of bow hunting, Gary started shooting competitive archery in January this year and competed in the Veteran Male Freestyle Unlimited division. He won a few provincial field and indoor competitions during the year, with the highlights being his success in winning the South African National Indoor Championship, the South African National Field Archery Championship and the African Regional Field Archery Championship. After this, he was awarded Protea Colours and selected for the World Championship close to Parnu in Estonia. TheWorld Championships were held from 5 to 13 August 2022. The first two days were for the registration of around 600 archers from around the world, as well as bow testing or “vetting” to ensure that category limitations were adhered to. The competition was shot over 5 days, with 3 different targets. The field target (black centre with white and black rings) was shot on Monday and Thursday, the hunter target (white centre with black surround) was shot on Tuesday and Friday, whilst the animal target (2D animal prints) was shot on Wednesday. On day one, the archers in each category were randomly divided into groups of 3 or 4. For the remainder of the four days of the tournament, archers were grouped according to scores attained, i.e. the top 4 shot together in a group, etc. On four days (field and hunter target days), 112 arrows were shot at distances ranging from 20 feet (+- 6 meters) to 80 yards (+- 73 m), whilst on the animal round day, a minimum of 28 arrows with a maximum of 84 were shot. The latter depended on whether the preceding arrow was a hit or a miss. Scores were tallied daily, and the category winner was the archer with the highest score at the end of the competition. In the division Gary participated in, Veteran Male Freestyle Unlimited (VMFU), there were 17 archers (one of the larger categories at the tournament) from 10 different countries. Each day’s score was a maximum of 560, with the total for the tournament being out of 2800 points. Gary won the Veteran Male Freestyle Unlimited competition with 2704 points, just 4 points ahead of his closest rival (Ueli Brtischgi), with third place (Uwe Worschech) falling 37 points behind. At the end of day 1, Gary was in the lead by 7 points over Uwe Worschech from Germany and John Foley from England and 8 points ahead of Ueli Brtischgi from Switzerland. Dr Gary Bauer The FieldArchery Association Estonia hosted the above Championship tournament. The SouthAfrican teamconsisted of 13 Protea Archers and 2National Colour archers. International Field Archery Association World Field Archery Championships 2022 SAVA Members News I SAVV Lede Nuus Team South Africa before the opening procession Bow speed testing at inspection on day 1 The warm up range before the competition started on day 1 >>> 26