UK Student Archery Association

Six go to Taipei [14/Jul/17]

Archery GB and BUCS have made the selection of those who will go to Taipei and compete at the 30th Summer Universiade or World University Summer Games. The annonucement came a week ahead of schedule (BUCS and ArcheryGB websites) and there are six spaces, up from the anticipated four, a welcome bonus, given the funding cut to hit ArcheryGB.

The 2017 squad is as follows: recurves Tom Hall (Warwick), Jack Masfield (Derby), Ashe Morgan (Birmingham) and compounds Rebecca Blewett (Nottingham), Andrew Brooks (Staffordshire) and Hope Greenwood (Edinburgh), with Roy Nash the Team Manager/Coach.

The squad is an experienced one as Greenwood, Hall and Morgan will all be competing in their third FISU event, catapaulting them in to some pretty exclusive company. Greenwood will become the first British woman to make a third apperance. Rebecca Blewett and Jack Masefield shot last year in Mongolia, with only Andrew Brooks appearing for the first time. The lack of any lady recurves, however, is a big disappointment in itself and the make up of the squad means that the UK will only be eligible for 2 of the 6 team events, gents recurve and mixed compound.

Teams are based on the nationality of the archers themselves and not the nationality of the university. UKSAA will also follow the fortunes of any foreign students at British universities competing under their respective flags.

The event's website is www.2017.taipei. The event runs from the 19th to 30th August, with the archery competition running from Sunday 20th to Thursday 24th. If you're following live, you may need to set your alarm clocks - Taipei is 7 hours ahead of the UK at the moment.

Archery will become a compulsory Summer Universiade sport from 2019 in Naples. For that reason the separate World University Archery Championships, held most recently in 2016, have now been discontinued.