Archers on target at Silver Knight tournament

Three Wairarapa archers who contested the Silver Knight tournament in Lower Hutt this month all came away with a share of the spoils.
Chris Gorman, Roger Gibbs and Jayden Wilton were up against stern opposition from archers representing Manawatu, Mana, Trentham and host club Randwick (Petone) and had to battle cold rain and variable winds that were so testing that even recording the scores was difficult.
But by the end of the afternoon's competition all three had secured top three positions, Gorman winning the compound division by six points from Mana's Tony Eastwood with Wilton only another nine points back in third place and Gibbs placing second behind Jonathan Couper-Smartt, of Manawatu, in the recurve division. Third six points behind Gibbs was Graeme Dodds, of Mana.
Each division at the tourney was open to archers of any grade and sex but women and junior archers were given a nine-metre ''handicap'' at each of the three distances.
Wilton's effort to place third in the compound division was particularly notable and he looks to have the potential to join Chris Gorman as one of the few juniors to have won a Silver Knight title in its 43-year history.
Gorman actually took the recurve title as a junior 25 years ago and still holds the national junior record in that discipline.
He has since made the switch to compound and his win at Lower Hutt was his first in the local district since returning to the region three years ago.