Student Events:

At indoor student competitions I have had my most consistent season ever, earning the award for highest aggregate score across all five league matches, as well as a peak performance to take individual gold at BUCS indoors (League scores: 584, 586, 582, 584, 578; BUCS indoors score: 591/600 at 20y, 178 competitors in men’s recurve). I have been the top scoring member of the team at every competition in the season, making a considerable contribution to our second place finish in the BUTTS league and our 1^st placed men’s team at BUCS indoors. At the British Universities Team Championships I had the joint highest score of the day in qualification, contributing to a 1^st place seeding for the team which emerged from the eliminations victorious for the second year running.

County and regional:

I was also able to represent Warwick at a local level, continuing my streak to win the Warwickshire indoor championships for the second year in a row (score 579/600 at 20y). At the West Midlands indoors, for the third year in a row I won the regional and open titles on the more challenging 18m round used internationally (score 566/600 at 18m)

National and International:

My best performances of the indoor season aside from BUCS came here. At the British indoors in December, I ranked 8^th during qualifying (score 568/600 at 18m, 156 competitors in men’s recurve), upgrading to a 5^th place finish after posting the best loosing score of the quarter finals shooting against triple Olympian Larry Godfrey. This is my best result yet at a national championships. I also travelled to Nimes, France to take part in the 3^rd stage of the World Archery indoor cup, which is the top level indoor competition in Europe. Here a PB in qualifying (score 575/600 at 18m, 217 competitors in men’s recurve) was just enough to get me into a shoot off for the top 32 elimination rounds. Against some tough competition, I came 2^nd in the tiebreak and hence ranked 32^nd overall, earning the right to shoot against the number one seed in the first round. I put in a strong performance that saw us tied after two sets, but eventually lost the match. Overall I took great pride from being the highest ranked British archer in my category.

Training and Future plans:

Since December I have been allowed to practice with the squad at the Archery GB performance unit, and have used the chance to practice at their indoor 70m range. I have also competed against the squad in their winter series of simulation events in preparation for the selection trials in April.

Over the rest of the season I will continue competing, with two further national series events including the British Championships, where I will be looking to improve on my current placing, as well as gaining selection scores for the 2017 world championships. I will also be preparing for the World University Games 2017, for which I plan to be much more competitive than in 2015. Finally I will be submitting my thesis between March and June 2017 so I should be able to attend both BUCS fixtures in the 2016-17 year and will be aiming to defend my titles!