On Saturday, March 19, nine UCD archers took part in the GMIT 2011 Intervarsity. With another strong performance, the team took the lead from UL in the IV team league and scored 2491 points, gathered by Robert Collins, Anne-Marie Donohoe, Shane Keaveney, Ines Rauch and Kevin Roche.

The last two competitions will be very interesting since DCU won in the team competition in GMIT and also overtook UL now. This season, the team league is very tight, with margins of a few points only and has already seen draws twice so that teams had to be ranked according to the total number of golds for each team. Nevertheless, the good form of UCD’s individual archers serves as a great potential and allows the club to be confident.

In addition to the team’s success , Elaine Chapman won first place in advanced barebow and is moving up the ranks in the barebow league now. The next IVs will decide about her chances of finishing the league in the top rankings. Team captain and late national champion Kevin Roche achieved the third highest score in male advanced recurve and is still in the top rankings of the male recurve league with chances of  winning the league at the end of this season. Again, no awards were given in advanced female recurve category, but Anne-Marie Donohoe and Ines Rauch are still in the run for the title in this category with Ines leading and Anne-Marie only a few points behind in runners-up position. Also positive for UCD archery is the development of its new members. John Hutchings crossed 450 in advanced recurve and receives the blue ISAA (Irish Student Archery Association) badge. Robert Collins, now in his second year in the club, was very close to breaking the “magical” mark of 500.

The next IV will be in Maynooth on March 26 already and UCD archery is optimistic about the outcome. For sure, the team will try to cement its promising positions.

UCD Archery Club - GMIT 2011 (left to right): Ines Rauch, Robert Collins, Kevin Roche, Colin Travis, John Hutchings, Anne-Marie Donohoe, Kenneth Conway, Shane Keaveney, Elaine Chapman and coach Vincent Plant. 

(pic and text Rauch)