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"We'll have a go....then we got a bit hooked"

Friday 14 July 2023

"We'll have a go....then we got a bit hooked"

Friday 14 July 2023


Siblings Zoe and Lisa Gray were competing together for Team Guernsey in the archery competitions this week, ending the Games with 7 medals between them.

Guernsey won eight medals in total in archery with Chantelle Bearder claiming the bronze over Lisa Gray in the Women's Recurve head to head knockout.

With Lisa and Zoe competing in the different disciplines of recurve and compound they won one and two individual medals respectively and two team medals each.

They said the four days of continual competition has been hard on them physically as well as mentally.

"It's a lot on the body," said Zoe. "It's a lot on the head and it's a lot on the mind and just generally. So we are all absolutely exhausted, but it is really good and it does really test you and push you and stuff like that.

"It is something people don't really realise how much goes into it. They think, 'Oh, you just stand and like shoot a bow?' but there's so much that goes into archery and it's actually a really complicated sport."

archery island games

Pictured: The 8-medal winning 'Green Army' archery team.

Zoe said she and her sister, Lisa, took a beginners course in archery after being invited by their uncle.

"Our uncle is the chairman of the club and he basically said to us whether we wanted do the beginners course. So we said, 'Yeah, OK, why not? We'll have a go at the beginners course'. And then after that we both got a bit hooked.

"I did recurve for about a year, which is what Lisa's discipline is, and then I moved over to compound, and I've done compound ever since, and she's stuck with recurve."

Lisa said the pair of them spend a lot of time on their sport, devoting hours a week to their training.

"We both train about four times a week about sort of two hours at a time. Obviously that is with with the Island Games coming up, we were training at least four times a week and for a good hour and a half, two hours each time, maybe a bit more in the in between seasons.

"We would shoot maybe two or three times a week, and I do a good sort of hour, hour and a bit. So it may be not quite as intense, but it's nice. It's a massive social for us as well. It's not as if we're going down there and we're training, training, training, training. It's lovely to see everyone we meet. It's our friends. It's a social, so that's a big part of it as well."

The archery team tries to compete off island a couple of times a year at least, sometimes up to once a month.

Lisa said this week has been really good experience at some higher level competition on-island.

"It's been really good. The majority has been really friendly as well but it's nice that it's slightly higher level, that pushes us a little bit farther than we would normally locally. It's been amazing."

Zoe echoed what her sister said but added: "It's been hard work. It's been really hard work.

"The wind has been against us the whole time. It's been really windy, really sunny, really windy.

archery island games ROB CURRIE

Pictured: The Gray sisters and the rest of the archers have been competing at Port Soif all week.

"When you say archery is definitely a sport where other people know if you do athletics and races, you do your one race, and that's fine. But Monday, we were shooting all day nine to five and probably force five to six winds and stuff like that. So it's an endurance sport, but it's also physical and also mental.

"It's a massive mental game just to keep yourself going. We shot for four days in a row, and we shot all day Monday, all day Tuesday and then Wednesday and Thursday mornings." 

Having both been involved in the sport for around 15 years, Zoe said they are also keen to younger players taking it up.

"We always say that archery is a sport for everyone. There're a lot of families that are involved in it as well and you can start at any age, and you can take it as far as you want, really."

READ MORE...

Eight medals for Team Guernsey's archers

Jersey impresses with bows, Guernsey scoop four medals

LISTEN: Guernsey takes the opportunity to field full archery team for Island Games

LISTEN: Alderney athletes out in full force

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