Today was the South Island JAMA Championships…
JAMA (Junior and Midget Archers…no really!! ) is the junior section of Archery New Zealand and was formed more than 20 years ago to help cater for young archers in New Zealand….Before JAMA was formed in New Zealand all juniors no matter what their age competed against one another so a 17 year old stood beside an 8 year old shooting for the same trophies and medals. JAMA was formed to make junior archery a much fairer system and now has 5 different age divisions from Kiwi (under 10) to Junior (under 20).
JAMA has their own Maori Motto; Mo Te Uri O Te Waa.
This translated means; Our Young Are Our Future.
Now J is only just 7 but he and E who is also just 7… were allowed to take part in the South Island Championships. It was the first competition he had been in …well ever really. We decided if there was ever a title for the smallest archers in the competition well we’d cracked that one straight off
It was an early start and cold to begin with but as the day progressed it was sunny and actually pretty hot (around 22/23 degrees)…in fact at times it could have done with being a bit cooler.
The competition lasted from about 10am until 3:15pm with breaks and the end result…..out of the novices our boy won!!!! …..and not only did he win his section he got his 900 pin with a score of 911!!
The next archer scored 775 and the third 586.
All the boys who stood on that podium were from our archery club …phenomenal!!!
I don’t think J gets what he has achieved….he has never entered a competition before and for him to have achieved this blows me away…
Oh and a picture of that all important medal ………….
Proud Mum?…….YOU BETCHA!!!