WINDHOEK – A five-member team of Namibian junior archers will this coming Friday depart for Wuxi, China, where they will represent the country at the highly competitive World Youth Archery Championship (WYAC).
The WYAC is the most prestigious competition on the youth archery calendar, besides the youth Olympics. The competition will start with registration and official practice on October 13, with the last medal matches to be held on October 20. Only the best-ranked archers can participate, and therefore the standard is the highest to be expected. The team has been selected according to a continuous ranking system based on continuous completion results over the 12 months preceding the selection deadline.
Preparation and training of the archers for this prestigious event was done under the watchful eyes of Marja Woortman (national coach) and Frank Reddig, who took control of preparations of the Tsumeb-based archers. The final high intensity training was conducted in Windhoek during the last weekend of September. During that course, China’s Ambassador to Namibia, Xin Shunkang visited the team and promised full support and assistance to the team when they arrive in China.
Sports commissioner Ndeuli Hamutumwa of the Namibia National Sports Commission (NSC) also visited the team. Hamutumwa is the commissioner responsible for archery. The traveling squad is as follow: Babette Taljaard (compound cadet women), Xander Reddig (recurve cadet men), Ruan van Staden (compound cadet men), Sebastian Fechter (compound cadet men), Joubert Snyman (compound cadet men). All five archers will take part in the individual competitions, while Ruan, Sebastian and Joubert will also be taking part in the team events. Babette and Xander are members of Northern Archery Club in Tsumeb, while Ruan, Sebastian and Joubert are members of the SKW Archers in Windhoek.
By Staff Reporter