Rogers achieves target of being Leinster’s best

FOLLOWING their march in the St Patrick’s parade in Ardee where they boasted a massive turnout, CúChulainn Archers had an early beerless night in advance of Saturday’s Leinster Open Championships.

Fourteen of their archers converged on Greenhills Archery Centre in the Tallaght Sports Complex, making up almost a third of the 48 in attendance, and not surprisingly they would come away with a large haul of medals.

With members coming from every corner of Ireland and ages ranging across 60-plus years, there were at least two members of the Ardee club in every category.

Early equipment failures were swiftly fixed by teammates and the archers commenced shooting at 10am, with four rounds of 30 arrows taking place over five hours. The format is not for the faint-hearted as 120 arrows can leave even the fittest flagging towards the end.

Niall Bradley achieved PBs in 30 and 60 arrows, Michelle Williams - in the ladies recurve - also shot an impressive PB for 120 arrows despite issues on the shooting line and Rachael McComb upped her PB for 120 arrows.

There were gold medals for Eamonn Rogers, Rachael McComb, Tom McComb, Niall McComb and Adam Bradley. Silver went to Niall Bradley, John Keenan, Fiachra Judge, Brandon Dollard and Chris O’Sullivan, while bronze was presented to Michelle Williams, Ann Marie Murray and John Dollard.

The competition also provides a large silver trophy for the archer who scores the highest score of the whole competition, and that was won by coach Eamonn Rogers who retains the trophy for another year.

Elsewhere, Michael Furlong dominated the male barebow section at an IMM shoot the previous weekend hosted by Dunbrody Archers at New Ross.

CúChulainn Archers can be contacted on cuchulainnarchers@hotmail.com or on their facebook page CúChulainn Archers. New members are welcome, with training at the Parish Centre, Ardee.