12 May 2009
Nicky Hunt, the Be Number 1 compound archer, has created history by winning the second leg of the World Cup series in Porec, Croatia to become the first British archer to claim victory in an individual World Cup event.
Hunt’s achievement is all the more considerable, given that British compound archers did not compete in the first event of the four-leg series, which was held in the Dominican Republic in April, because of a lack of funding.
The Ipswich archer, who lifted her world ranking from 14th to eighth as a result of her victory, beat local favourite and world No 5 Ivana Buden by 113 to 111 points in a desperately tense gold-medal contest. The match was decided by the last arrow when, with the scores tied, Buden shot an eight before Hunt responded with a perfect 10.
“It was a fantastic display,” said GB performance manager Barry Eley, who has since confirmed that Hunt will compete in the third leg of the World Cup, which takes place in Antalya, Turkey in early June. The fourth and final stage will be held in Shanghai, China in August, though Hunt’s presence there could be dependent on how she fares in Turkey in the meantime.
Hunt’s 25 points for winning gold in Croatia catapults her into equal fourth place in the overall women’s compound World Cup standings, nine points behind leader Buden. The top four archers after the four legs qualify for the prestigious World Cup final, which takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark in late September.
Eley added: “It’s nothing less than Nicky deserves for all the hard work she puts in and everyone is really chuffed to bits for her. It was a great performance in a close and tense gold-medal match and all credit to her for keeping her nerve despite all the partisan support for Ivana. Let’s hope for more of the same at the next leg of the competition in Antalya a few weeks from now.”
Indeed so. With only the best three results over the four legs counting towards qualification for Copenhagen, Hunt now possesses a gilt-edged chance of qualifying for the season’s finale – and especially if she is able to compete in Shanghai in August.
“It was an awesome feeling to win a world-class tournament – and one that has gone through my mind many times before,” said Hunt, who confirmed that only a top-six finish in Croatia would have been sufficient for her to compete in the next event in Turkey.
“Money for British compound archers is so tight that we were told only three weeks ago that three of us – two women and one man - would be going to Porec.”
Although it will feature at next year’s Commonwealth Games, compound archery is not an Olympic sport – hence its serious lack of funding. Recurve archery, by comparison, is an Olympic discipline and receives funding from UK Sport. Hunt’s result in Croatia was certainly some consolation for Britain after all eight of its recurve competitors failed to reach the knockout stages.
Eley said: “Olympic and Paralympic archers between them have attracted more than £6m for the next four years. That has been ring-fenced for the recurve discipline and includes funding for development and talent-identified archers as well as the main elite squads. The other pot is one that Archery GB [the sport’s national governing body] puts into the three other disciplines, which are compound, field and disabled. It is met from membership fees and has to cover junior levels as well as the senior level.
“We try to support them all as best we can, but the reality is that this pot has dwindled from £100,000 a year four years ago to £50,000 a year now. And we ideally need £120,000 to £130,000 a year to be able to send full senior and junior teams to the various competitions.
“This year is a particularly busy one, with four World Championships and the World Games across all disciplines. And that doesn’t include things like the World Cup and the European Grand Prix.
“After her fantastic result in Croatia, Nicky has a good chance of winning a World Cup final place and she will definitely compete at the next leg in Turkey. If she finishes in the top six there, we will move heaven and earth to get her to Shanghai.”
Even if Hunt, who works as a full-time physiotherapist, fails to win a point in Turkey, she would still stand a reasonable chance of gaining sufficient points in China to be able to qualify for the end-of-season World Cup final in Copenhagen. It would be a travesty, however, if a lack of funding stood in her way.
