2010 NASP World Invitation tournament in USA attended by young people from South Africa
Orlando Florida –-(Ammoland.com)- Whow!!! Whow !! what an investment has been made in the young people of South Africa by attending the 2nd World Championship. National Archery in the Schools Program tournament hosted in the ESPN Worldwide sport Centre in Orlando Florida USA
During October 2009 the first National Competition of the NASP® SA (National Archery in the Schools Program) program was held in Pretoria and the top 10 archers at this competition was invited to attend the World Championship in October 2010 in the USA
All the wheels were put into motion and the fundraising was started to cover the expenses of the archers going to the World Championship – funds were raised and a big thank you to our sponsors and everybody that assisted us – the parents of the young people who covered a large portion of the cost – thank you very much – this was an investment in the visibility of South Africa and our young people and after the tournament – as the world now knows that South Africa is a force to be reckoned with
The young people were from the following schools – 8 from Riecbeeckrand Hoër skool in Randfontein, 1 from Waterstone Collage and 1 from Multi Ed home schooling – 4 coaches and two groups of parents went with the group
Great was the excitement when all arrived at OR Tambo Airport @ 16h00 on Thursday 30 September 2010 – once everybody had checked their luggage and bow cases in pastor Gerhard Pretoruis sent everybody of to the USA after he prayed over the group and the last goodbyes were said and into the plane off to the USA. The reservations for our stay was done at the Caribbean beach resort which is in Disney world – that added to the excitement as the young people would also experience Disney World theme parks, being in America and then most important of all, the NASP® World championship tournament
Once we arrived in the USA, experienced the customs officials, the size of the airport, the underground trains and then onto the bus that will take us to the resort and yes, we are in the USA going to the world championship – a first for South Africa, the young people, the coaches and the parents
Everybody was overwhelmed by the way that everything operated smoothly and we arrived at the resort, were booked into our rooms and the big task of unpacking started with the anticipation of the first visit to a Disney world theme park
The next few days were spent going to the various theme parks, plenty of shopping, going on some thrilling rides and being swept away into fantasy world of Disney, we had to come back to reality and Thursday 7th October we went to the ESPN centre for our first practice session and to get the young people acquainted with the environment that they will be shooting in on Friday 8th October
A practice range was set up outside the hall and our archers got their equipment out and the range officials went thru the various protocols and when our archers started shooting a number of oee, ahaa, good – where are you from? came from the spectators and archers waiting to shoot as our archers were really shooting well and the world started realizing there are competent archers that has arrived at the tournament and that means additional competition
When we entered the hall a bit later everybody had already heard of the new force that has arrived, the people from South Africa – we were warmly greeted and welcomed by all, lapel pins were exchanged between the various archers, many requests were made to pose for photographs with the various teams from the various states and countries and we had the overcome the first concern in the competition – will we be welcomed and how will we be received – with the friendly and warm reception that we got we started relaxing and could focus on the task ahead as we now have to shoot in a competition where 100 archers will shoot at the same time and a total of 947 will be shooting during Friday and Saturday – we were overwhelmed as the biggest competition in South Africa was 30 archers shooting together with a total of 124 Archer competing at the National Competition
The group from Anderson County Middle School Kentucky really made us feel welcome and an instant bond was formed between the two groups – supporting and cheering each other on during the competition – this bond developed during the two days and NASP® SA will now extend an invitation to the Kentucky group to come and compete in South Africa during the Huntex show in April 2011 – this will be an historical event as the National Archery in the Schools program stared 9 years ago in Kentucky and they will also be the first international team that will visit South Africa – although the program has only been active in South Africa for 20 months
Our archers have now all got international rankings and there are a number of them that now have rankings under the top 30, and the top 260 in the world that means we have people in the top 34% of the world archers.
The next national competition in South Africa will be held on 30 October at Riebeeckrand Hoërskool in Randfontein – the top archers in this tournament will be going to the world championships in USA during October 2011 and will also compete in April 2011 against the team from Kentucky USA
Contact Gerhard Lottering 083 306 6366 for more information
Changing lives one arrow at a time.
National Archery in the Schools Program www.archeryintheschools.org