Aiming for success
Wicklow Archers are going from strength to strength
WICKLOW Archery were among the most prolific winners at the recent Wicklow Open competition in Greystones, with Mark Cunningham saying that he hopes the club’s success will inspire more people to get involved with the sport.
The 23-person Wicklow panel won a total of four medals at Sunday’s competition – one gold, two silver, one bronze – thus joining Dundrum as the club with the most medals won.
Cillian Reid won their one and only gold medal, in the Recurve Cadet Men’s category, in which Reid and fellow Wicklow-representative Rory Farrell were unopposed.
In the Recurve Men’s group, Garrett Byrne beat out Adam Taylor (Dundrum) to the silver medal, with Wicklow’s Eoin Wylie coming fourth; David Moran coming eighth; Mark Cunningham finishing 12th; Steven Kirwan ending 13th; Gerry Edwards 14th; and Tony Murphy 16th.
Tom Fox won Wicklow’s only bronze medal, in the Recurve Master Men’s, with Peter Bishton coming fourth.
Speaking to the Wicklow People, club PRO, Mark Cunningham, said that he was delighted with how the event went, and hopes that it will convince more people to get involved with the sport.
‘We were very proud with how the event off very well, because so many of us were involved in setting it up, and there was an awful lot of effort in the background to get it up and running.
‘The recurve category, in particular the male recurve category, was one of the biggest. We got one medal in that – Garrett Byrne winning silver – even though two of our club members are going off to Nimes next week [for the Indoor Archery World Series].
We have the biggest club in Ireland, at the moment. We’ve got 90 members and we are trying to increase the membership all the time. There is a good community of shooters in Wicklow and the surrounding area.
‘There is a demand there for people who want to try archery.’