The National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) finished a successful year of developing the sport of archery among youth in Zimbabwe. At their finale tournament held on Sunday (29 November 2015) at Chisipite Primary School, a close series of matches saw Hellenic Primary School winning the Junior League and the mixed schools team of Archer’s Access winning the Senior League for the full series of matches in 2015.
In the senior division, Archers’ Access won the gold for 2015, though on Sunday they lost by a point to Peterhouse Boys who had to settle for 2015 silver. St George’s came in with bronze. On the side of the juniors Hellenic Primary were the clear winners, but with only a single point separating silver medalists St John’s Prep over bronze winners Chisipite Junior in the 2015 rankings.
Using not only Sunday’s results, but consolidating the results from all tournaments over the course of the year, Daniel Jackson of St John’s College was awarded the Top Male Senior Archer and Chelsey Hunter of Chisipite Senior School the Top Female Senior Archer. Hamish Cumming and Cristina Jackson won the top awards for junior archers.
From what has been a relatively unknown sport locally, NASP has played a crucial role in seeing that Archery is picking up as a sport in Zimbabwean primary and high schools. In 2015, there were twelve actively participating schools in the NASP program. Student archers will be gearing up for the All-Worlds Tournament which will take place in neighboring South Africa in July 2016. Zimbabwe will send a team of sixteen archers to compete in the world event.