UK Olympic archer Alan Wills and Copeland’s mayor Keith Hitchen have been getting their heads together to come up with ideas for an archery camp.

They hope the camp would be used by archers from across the world to train at and get used to the British climate.

Mr Wills said that a major part of an athlete’s training before the Olympics is to go to the host country and get used to the weather conditions.

In 2006 and 2007, he went to Beijing to train ahead of last year’s Olympics, where he was shooting his arrows in temperatures up to 40 degrees and 100 per cent humidity.

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Olympians to train in West Cumbria

Antony Wood was part of a three-man team representing Great Britain who annexed the team gold at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

National Junior Archery Champion, Antony, 15, from Vansittart Drive, joined 16-year-old Mark Nesbitt from Banbridge and Alec Wheeler from Bedford, vanquishing tournament favourites Australia, Korea and China to win top honours.

The feat was made even more remarkable because it was only the second time the team has competed in an international tournament together – they had spent the previous week in Brisbane.

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Antony earns ninth place and team gold

DENTON archer Tom Barber a member of Thorpe Hamlet Junior Archery Club, has been named among the athletes of the year by the British Olympic Association.

To mark outstanding performances in 2008, Tom was awarded the trophy for archery, in a year where he made the last four in the Olympic shoot-off, was men’s Beijing reserve, and continued to develop into one of the UK’s top archers.

“Tom has had a great year, and is fully deserving of this award,” said Archery GB chairman Lynne Evans.

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Olympic accolade for archer

The British team is 100-strong and is made up of competitors from canoeing, diving, equestrianism, fencing, gymnastics, rowing, shooting, triathlon and beach volleyball.

The Birstall youngster had her first taste of international action in October when she was a member of the GB cadet team which competed at the Junior World championships in Antalya, Turkey.

She shot in the women’s recurve team, while Bowmen of Rutland’s James Mortlock was a member of the junior men’s recurve squad.

Both qualified for the head-to-head rounds, Mortlock finishing with a rank of 32 and top Briton. McPherson was ranked 63rd after losing to Russia’s Tatiana Segina, who went on to take gold.

Archery: McPherson earns a call to the British squad

Wow. Two years from her first bow, to a world class archer. Impressive discipiline. Best of luck to you Ms. Coggins, we’ll be following your career!

Record-breaking archer Zoe Coggins is aiming for the top to compete in world championships in Poland and the USA.

Zoe, 16, of Hylton Castle, Sunderland, was ranked fourth last year in the British under-18s, but has now moved up to second. She also set a new national under-16 record, scoring an incredible 142 out of 144.

The Castle View School pupil now has her sights set on selection for the Great Britain junior team for the 2009 World Indoor Junior Championships, as well as the outdoor championsip in Poland.

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Zoe’s aiming at world championship

The article is short on details in specifics with the archery teams, but it looks like the world-wide financial situation is affecting certain sports in the UK. The government is looking to match monies gathered from the private sector. For certain sports, this hasn’t materialized, for others the situation is better.

The axe hangs over ten of Great Britain’s Olympic teams before a key funding decision next week that will define the country’s preparations for London 2012.

So, who could be the winners and losers in the scramble for cash?

Winners Sports that met or exceeded their targets in Beijing in August or are able to identify potential medal-winners in 2012 — archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrianism, gymnastics (artistic), judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, swimming/diving, taekwondo, triathlon.

Losers Sports that missed their Beijing targets or have little chance of a medal in 2012 — basketball, fencing, handball, hockey, shooting, table tennis, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.

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Ten Great Britain teams face the axe for London as funding gap bites

EXMOUTH’S Olympic archery hopefuls will be forced to leave the town to train in the lead-up to London 2012 if a new all-weather archery range in Withycombe is not approved.

The club want to build a 31-metre-long, eight-target indoor archery range next to their outdoor facilities at the southern corner of Withycombe Raleigh Common.

The timber-clad design, covering 403 square metres – with an additional 52 square metres of landscaping – would be given the appearance of a ‘traditional barn’ and would be ‘sympathetic’ to the surrounding area.

The building would stand a little under five metres tall, be 12 metres wide and set into the hillside ‘to minimise the visual impact’.

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Archers’ indoor range ‘essential’

WHEN Leigh Christie’s uncle introduced her to the world of archery when she was 13, she could never have foreseen the rollercoaster journey that would form the next six years.

In that time, she became entirely hooked on the sport and has worked her way through the ranks to become the best in the country at her age level – now knocking on the door of the senior classes. In between times, she has even found time to fall prey to an archer’s greatest fear – target panic – and beat it.

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Don’t panic! Here’s Leigh’s hitchhiker’s guide to archery

FORMER men’s compound World Field Champion Chris White (Rugby Bowmen) has topped the end of season UK rankings for the tenth consecutive year.

Naomi Folkard (Leamington) has topped the ladies’ recurve rankings for the eighth time; and a number of other Warwickshire archers feature in the top 20.

White, aged 30, and 25-year-old Folkard both started archery at a very young age and have been shooting for GB since they were juniors. Both are also all-round archers competing internationally in outdoor target, indoor target and field archery.

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Archery – County of Warwick Association latest

Lt Jonathan Parker’s performance during the competition earned him the title of the Royal Navy’s outdoor archery champion for 2008. He was also part of the four man Royal Navy team who beat the RAF and Army to become the inter-Services outdoor champions.

The 28-year-old joined the Royal Navy in 2001 and is currently the secretary of the Royal Navy Archery Association. He took up the sport 10 years ago while studying at Southampton University.

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Jonathan is arrowing for success