Archers Shine at Record-Setting National Indoor Championships
OutdoorHub 03.31.13
With strongest-ever participation of 2388 archers, the 44th U.S. National Indoor Championships and JOAD National Indoor Championships have kicked off a 2013 USA Archery event season that promises to keep fans excited about the rapidly-growing sport of archery.
In the four senior divisions, two of the world’s best compound archers and two Olympians clinched the titles of National Indoor Champion, automatically earning spots on the 2014 United States Archery Team.
Erika Jones (Grand Island, Neb.), Braden Gellenthien (College Station, Texas), Miranda Leek (College Station, Texas) and Brady Ellison (Chula Vista, Calif.) took wins in the Female Senior Compound, Male Senior Compound, Female Senior Recurve and Male Senior Recurve categories, respectively.
JOAD archers – that is, members of Junior Olympic Archery Development clubs – posted strong scores in the JOAD National and U.S. National Indoor events, offering fans of the sport a preview of serious talent developing in compound and recurve youth competitors.
With the beginning of USA Archery’s outdoor season rapidly approaching – the Arizona Cup USAT Qualifier Series Event begins in less than a week – event organizers are seeing strong event participation across the board, in youth and adult divisions, portending a continued surge in archery participation.
2013 U.S. National Indoor Championships and JOAD National Indoor Championships event registrations surpassed the 2012 event by a whopping 559 archers, suggesting that with “Hunger Games” mania scheduled to continue through 2015, Katniss Everdeen’s favorite sport should continue to see strong growth.
The 44th U.S. National Indoor and JOAD National Indoor Championships were hosted at eleven locations across the United States, including archery clubs, pro shops and school facilities in Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, Washington, California, Virgina, Ohio and New Mexico.
USA Archery extends its congratulations to the winners, and to all archers who participated. Awards will be distributed according to event rules and mailed from the National Office in the near future.
