Youth Olympian TAFAFU wins silver for Tonga at New Zealand nationals

Written by Caro GEELEN; Photos credit © Steve CLIFTON and Bert BOURGEOIS.

Lusitania TATAFU of Tonga entered the open women’s recurve match-play despite being a cadet, shooting at the longer distance of 70m. She showcased the skills she’d learnt at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, heading through archers ranked much higher than her to get to the gold medal match.

TATAFU took out NZ ranked number one Cheree KINNEAR to get to the gold (Cheree collecting the bronze as consolation) and fought NZ ranked number two, Sarah FULLER, right to a one-arrow shoot-off for gold. It was a nail-biting match as Lusitania had a commanding lead, but Sarah pulled back to clinch the gold with a single arrow.

The open men’s recurve had a bronze match between Tahitian Teiva WINKELSTROETER and junior Jeremy HOLLIS.  Teiva had stormed his way to the final, but dropped out in the semis and had a tough opponent in the strong Jeremy. HOLLIS, while not as experienced as WINKELSTROETER, was calm and level-headed and showed the maturity of an up-and-coming world-class archer, taking the match 6-0.

The gold was settled between the number one and the number two ranked archers in New Zealand, NZ team members and representatives at the Torino 2011 World Championships, Stephen FLORENCE and Robert PETERSON. A grudge match of sorts, Stephen and Robert have regularly come to blows at National Championships, and this was a tough one. PETERSON, however, showed his improving form and beat FLORENCE 6 points to 2, taking the gold medal.

In the open women’s compound, Jillian FENNER of Australia competed against Danielle BROWN of UK for the bronze. The wind played havoc on their equipment but they both masterfully pulled back. It was an effort of who could judge the gusts at the right time, and BROWN showed her two-time Paralympic gold medal composure, winning the bronze 138-133.

For the gold, two-time NZ representative at the World Youth Championships, Elizabeth RANDLE, was up against 2012 Oceania silver medallist Elizabeth ELLERY-SIAOSI.  It was a tight match as both archers were neck and neck the entire match, one point separating them right up until the second to last end, when they were tied. One arrow, just touching the line, managed to split them and ELLERY-SIAOSI had the gold by a point, 136-135.

In the open men’s compound, Laurent CLERTE of New Caledonia had taken out some of New Zealand’s higher ranking archers to muscle into the bronze medal match against master archer Ocky BLIGNAUT, who, until recently, had only ever been a field archer (albeit a champion one!) While CLERTE shot well, the match was BLIGNAUT’s from the start, who took a commanding lead early on, and won the match 143-133.

The open men’s compound final was between 2009 World Champ bronze medallist Steve CLIFTON and 2010 World Cup gold medallist Shaun TEASDALE. These two powerhouses of NZ archery and regular World Cup participants had the run of the range right from the start, and settled into the gold medal match with cheerful smiles. These disappeared quickly as the friendly rivals got down to business. CLIFTON’s nerves showed in the third end, while TEASDALE coolly continued his control of the match, dropping only six 9’s to win 144 to 139.

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