Hollis on target at senior level
Jeremy Hollis is making a habit of finishing third.
The Mana Archery Club member, the top junior in New Zealand, finished a creditable third in the open men’s recurve at the outdoor national champs in Auckland last month.
He took third in the matchplay and his team won the bronze in the teams event.
However, Hollis and clubmate Micky Gunn came first in a competition pitting four provinces against one another.
‘‘I was pretty satisfied with my results in Auckland,’’ Hollis said. ‘‘My ranking [in the open men’s section] is third in the country, so at least I’m consistent and it reflects how I’ve been going.
‘‘Of course I would have been happier to finish higher, and I know I can do better, but each competition is going to be different on the day.’’
While 2014 was about results nationally and improving his overall ranking, this year Hollis hopes to test his skills overseas. The tournament he is targeting is a world cup archery event in Shanghai in May.
Hollis has already got three qualifying scores to enter and just needs one more – and the funding – to go to China.
‘‘ It’s definitely my goal this year,’’ he said.
‘‘ To get that international experience is so important, against the best in the world. I wouldn’t be going there with any high hopes, just wanting to get a score that I would be happy with.’’
He said he and other southern hemisphere archers would be coming off a busy summer so May would be a good time to compete.
While his practice is daily leading up to nationals, he will taper that off to about twice a week as the season wraps up.
He said he hoped the club would get the chance to host the indoor national champs in Porirua in winter.
In other results for Mana Archery Club members at nationals, Gunn came second in the women’s recurve, Tara Mackle fourth in the women’s recurve and Adele Hollis second in the women’s compound.