Nelson Mandela Bay archers dominated at this year’s African Bowhunting Organisation National Archery Championships, which took place at Magnum Archery in Faerie Glen, Pretoria, at the weekend.
Hendrik Steyn and Juanita Krauspe took gold medals in the traditional men’s and women’s categories, while Annelize van Niekerk came third in women’s traditional.
The bowmen and women were among 30 archers – men, women and children – from all over South Africa.
Steyn, 58, of Uitenhage, who had previously won gold medals back-to-back in 2012 and 2013, has now set his sights on the world championships next year.
“I would like to go to the world championships,” he said.
“I went to the nationals this year to collect points.
“I need to perform at a certain level, they call it the weighted average.
“They take the scores of your first four best performances,” he said.
“If you reach 150 over 220 points you qualify for Proteas colors.
“Hopefully I will be able to go to the world championships as a Proteas member.”
Steyn started archery in 2008 and began with compound archery before moving to traditional archery in 2011.
“I am happy with the gold medal. It’s not easy shooting with the bows we use.
“I think this is a God-given talent.”
Gold medallist Krauspe, 48, said it was Steyn who had encouraged her to take part in the nationals. “I am very excited about my achievement and I am also surprised, because Hendrik always [told] me I must go to the nationals and that I [would] do very well.
“I never really believed in myself, so the win actually gave me confidence to get more serious in the sport.
“This was my first national competition.
“I started taking part in the sport two years ago and I didn’t shoot much.
“But at the beginning of this year I started to go [to shoots] more often.
“In April I got a decent bow and exercised quite a bit.”
She said her plan for next year was to go back and better her performance at the nationals.
“I want to encourage people to take up the sport, especially younger people.” Van Niekerk, 33, of Charlo, also aims to do better than her third place next year.
“I am very happy that I placed in the top three, but everyone always wants to do better.
“So I think for next year I will aim to do a little bit better,” she said.
“I began the sport in June this year, so I think I have done well for someone who started quite recently.
“I work fulltime during the week. Archery is just a hobby we practice at weekends.”
She said the sport was challenging, which was what pushed her to take part.
“With traditional archery you have to aim before you shoot.
“Everything has to work [for you] to hit the target well.
“So you must get everything right to get the perfect shot.”