Archers out of Commonwealths

After the seeding rounds yesterday, the three Manx archers returned to the Yamuna Archery Ground today to resume their competition.

After shooting a full 720 round in the seeding shoot, today the format changed to a knock-out series of shorter matches.

Each archer shoots three ends of six arrows.

At the completion of the end, the scores are added up and the archer with the best score gets two marks.

The match can therefore be won in two ends, or it can go to three.

Aalin George had had a great competition yesterday, qualifying in 20th place and setting a new Manx record of 670 points.

Today she could not quite get the better of her opponent, and despite taking her to three ends, failed to progress.

The 14-year-old said, "I did my best and that’s all I think I could do."

Sarah Rigby was disappointed with her ranking round score yesterday, and consequently came up against the number five seed in today’s match.

Whilst being close on actual score, with the points system that is now in place, she failed to progress.

Adrian Bruce also failed to make it past his opening match today, saying afterwards, "If you didn’t shoot too well yesterday, it just made today a harder hill to climb.

"I’m obviously disappointed. The guy I was up against didn’t shoot as well today as yesterday, and I really thought I could take advantage.

"It’s been a great experience and a real privilege to be able to compete at this level. and it would be fantastic to see archery feature in the Commonwealth Games in the future."

Team Manager Peter Mumford said, "I am disappointed for the three of them, but not disappointed in the way they have conducted themselves and performed in what has been the biggest competition of their lives - so far."