ON the weekend of November 25-26, over 20 archers from across the Caribbean gathered in Barbados for the 2nd Annual Barbados Olympic Association’s Independence Invitational Games.

The tournament was hosted by the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) in association with national sporting federations to commemorate Barbados’ 50th Anniversary of Independence at two different locations: Coverlet Terrace, Bridgetown, and Codrington College, St. John, Barbados.
Teams competing were from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyana.

Guyana was represented in its first regional Archery tournament by Archery Guyana’s member Dwayne Grovesnor.
Competitors shot over 3 000 arrows throughout the event, in both Recurve and Compound men’s and women’s categories. The tournament commenced with 12 rounds consisting of 6 arrows in each round during heavy rainfall and the unpredictable wind conditions.

At the end of the first day, Guyana’s Grovesnor and Trinidadian Lallo were the only two not securing a bye thereby having to compete against each other.
Their set wound up to a score of five-all which then called for an exciting one-arrow shoot-off. Guyana shot a nine which meant that Trinidad needed a 10 to take their specific match but luckily for Guyana, they did not secure this so Guyana moved forward to face Martinique.

Unfortunately, however, Guyana’s Grovesnor was unable to secure a win against Martinique to join Trinidad in the finals. Martinique won 6-0, with scores of 24, 24 and 25 as compared to Guyana’s 7, 12 and 23.
The exciting Final was between Trinidad & Tobago and Martinique, while Guyana faced Barbados in the third-place game.

Guyana started off leading in the first set but the Bajans came back to tie at two. After a cat-and-mouse game, with scores being levelled after every round, the scores reached 4. Regrettably, in the final set Barbados took the set and therefore won the bronze medal by one point.
Martinique emerged the gold medallists as they thrashed Trinidad and Tobago 6-0.