Kroon a real sharpshooter
Rising star named to Proteas side
IMPRESSIVE rising archery talent Natacha Kroon received her biggest accomplishment to date when she was selected for the Proteas team to compete at the International Field Archery Association (Ifaa) World Bowhunter Championships later this year.
The champs take place in Godollo city in Hungary from August 22-30 and will see the world’s best bowhunters in action.
In all 1 596 of the best archers from the 30 member countries will be competing in the event, making for some extremely tough competition.
Kroon is the sole representative from the Eastern Cape in the 17person Proteas squad and she will be looking to represent her province with pride. She has been in top form over the past couple of years and with the East London Archery Club having been formed in 2012, has been one of their leading archers.
She has won numerous events and performed superbly in others, which led to her moving up the ranks.
At the South African National Archery Association (Sanaa) 2014 National 3D archery championships, hosted by the North West Province, Kroon obtained a gold medal in her shooting style as part of the Eastern Cape provincial team and won gold in both the provincial and club championships.
She was then awarded Eastern Cape provincial and national association colours in the Ifaa 3D archery disciplines.
Sanaa qualifying standards, determines that an archer respectively needs to qualify three and four qualifying scores for provincial and national colours and needs to participate in the national championships of a particular discipline.
“Natacha is currently the number one archer in SA and participates in three different disciplines, being Field/Hunter, 3D and Indoor,” said Marco Masu, Field Vice of Sanaa.
“Ifaa determines their qualifying scores and standards which needs to be achieved by an archer to represent SA at international competitions.
“She has since 2014 achieved six qualifying scores for 3D including three for Field/Hunter, enabling her to participate at international events.”
“She made history when she became the first archer ever in the Eastern Cape to get her Protea colours for the discipline in which she has participated and she is also ranked first in SA in all the other Ifaa disciplines.”
Kroon is currently competing in the African Region Field Archery Championships in Pretoria, and enjoyed a good first day yesterday sitting first in her section.
The champs run until tomorrow and with a tough field she will need to be at the top of her game to hold onto first place.
Following these champs Kroon will compete in the North West Provincial and Forrest Champs, both in July, followed by the Jock Champs in Mpumalanga in August before the Worlds and she will be looking to continue her great form and take it into the world champs.