Today 17 year old Hector McNeilly from Nelson won a silver medal in the World Archery Youth Champs in Winnipeg, Canada. This is the first time New Zealand has won a silver medal in the history of this event (Steve Clifton won bronze in 2004).
Hector was shooting in the under 18 men’s compound division, up against archers from around 60 countries across the world.
Qualifying first in the ranking round, Hector fought his way to the finals by winning every match.
Hector has been working towards this for the last two years, after coming fifth at the last World Youth Champs in Limerick, Ireland in 2023.
“I’m stoked to have won this medal and proud to represent New Zealand,” he said.
The finals and semi finals were held at the iconic The Forks in downtown Winnipeg.
Six youth archers from New Zealand traveled to Winnipeg for the Workd Youth Champs.
In the compound archery division with Hector was Jack Adams from Matamata and Levi Matheson from Auckland. In the recurve archery division was Phoebe Newcombe from Auckland, Thornton Wallberg from Auckland, and Zac Campbell from Timaru.
The World Archery Youth Champs is held every two years, and was last hosted in 2023 in Limerick, Ireland.
