Eight of them came from local club, Kings Forest Bowmen, based near Culford.

The tournament was opened with a parade of archers from the 17 countries taking part, through the centre of the capital, Windhoek, led by the local army band, with the townspeople lining the streets to watch.

The championships were held over five days, on five different courses of terrain varying from mountain ravines to sandy riverbeds, mostly in the wind, on open scrub bush land with temperatures in the high 20s.

The day started at 5.30am with the gathering of archers for instruction at 7.15am.

They were then bussed to the courses and started shooting at 8.30am. The shoot finished between 2.30pm and 5pm.

Kings Forest Bowmen returned with four World Champions, two silver medals and two bronze.


Three golds came in the Team of Nations competition, consisting of seven archers of different styles, which England won, beating teams from Australia, South Africa, USA and Germany.

Eleven medals in all. Every English archer won a medal of some kind.
Chris and Tony Smith were both first in the Veteran Ladies' and Gents' Bowhunter Recurve divisions, with Zelda Smith in the Ladies' Bowhunter Limited and Rosie Potter in the Veteran Ladies' Barebow Compound making up the four champions.

Silver medals were won by Ron Potter, Veteran Gents' Bowhunter Unlimited and Alec James, Veteran Gents' Barebow Compound, with Phil Smith taking the bronze.

James Cowie gained bronze in the Gents' Barebow Compound.

Zelda, Ron and James also won the Team of Nations Gold.

This was a wonderful result for the English Field Archery Assossiation.
The next world championships will be held in two years' time in Dahn, Germany.