Barberton teacher bags gold in archery
A Hoërskool Barberton teacher, Kobie du Preez, clinched a gold medal at the recent South African Field Archery Championship.
The competition is hosted by the
South African National Indoor and Field Archery Ascociation and was held in Thabazimbi between March 21 and 23.
Du Preez, a physical sciences teacher, managed to not only win the gold medal for her age category, but also improved on the South African record in the animal category, in which one aims at a target with a picture of an animal on it.
Archery has been a part of Du Preez’s life for the past 20 years, after her husband had got her into it. “He tried his best to convince me that I would enjoy it, but I was quite sceptical.
“It looked very macho to me and I have a petite build. Luckily there are bows for every body type and I instantly fell in love with the sport!”
When Du Preez moved to Barberton in 2003, she was able to really start honing her skills. In 2007 she received her national colours.
Unfortunately, health problems forced her to put archery on the back-burner for a few years. In 2016 she was able to partake in the sport competitively again. She said being a teacher is quite draining, so she does not practice as often as she would like.
However, Du Preez cannot imagine her life without archery. “The value that it adds to my life is huge. I’m very scatterbrained, but the act of doing the same action over and over has taught me discipline.”
She said she enjoys the fact that there is no age restriction on the sport. “I’m 56 years young and I can still shoot for many years!”