2023 World Archery Youth Championships hits the target for Limerick

Pictured at the 2023 World Archery Youth Championship were Adam Taylor, Director Aim Well Events pictured with two medal winners from the USA, Dewey Hathaway, Massachusetts and Olivia Dean, New Jersey. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

The 2023 World Archery Youth Championships was a great success this week attracting more than 800 athletes, coaches and supporters from more than 60 countries to Limerick

With a lead-in time of three years, the 2023 World Archery Youth Championships came to University of Limerick this July in what was a successful week-long event welcoming more than 800 athletes, coaches and supporters from more than 60 countries.

It was announced in 2020 that Limerick won the bid to host the competition after beating competition from two other cities. The bid was supported by Archery Ireland, University of Limerick, Limerick Council, Failte Ireland and Shannon Region Conference & Sports Bureau and is set to become a launch pad for attracting more World Archery events to Ireland.

Representing Switzerland, Laura Amato told I Love Limerick it was such a “great honour” coming to Limerick to represent her country, “I’m so happy, this is my first Youth World Championship, this is the biggest event I’ve ever been at and it’s such an amazing feeling to be here.”

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The 18-year-old Swiss athlete said the Limerick hospitality had been “great”, she said, “Everybody has been so nice to me up to now, I have only met amazing people, so it’s great.” She said without an event such as this she would have never visited Ireland or Limerick saying, “The hospitality is so great and I’m really enjoying my time here.”

Inspired by watching The Hunger Games, Laura decided to sign up to her local archery club and said to any young people out there with an interest should “just do it”, Laura said, “Sometimes it may be a little difficult because it is a precision sport, every little mistake you make can be a huge mistake on the target, but it’s worth it to meet people, to be able to have this experience of archery because it’s such a fun and rewarding sport in the end.”

Bringing international events such as this to Limerick requires a lot of effort from many different stakeholders and participants, but they bring a benefit to the local and wider community,   David Ward, Sports Business Development Manager for Events at UL noted international events such as this “bring so much not just to Limerick and UL, but to the greater Shannon region too” hosting participants from countries all over the world.

Mr Ward told I Love Limerick, “This event, in particular, has had a lead-in time of three years, most of these international events would usually have a lead-in time of 3 to 7 or 8 years. That goes from bidding, collaboration from the international federation, local ambassadors, and all the stakeholders locally and all the hard work pays off experiencing the Olympic Village atmosphere here on campus this past week”

Karen Brosnahan, Shannon Region Conference & Sports Bureau, said “Hosting large, international sports events produces millions in economic impact for Limerick and underscores the importance of attracting events such as the World Archery Youth Championships here in the future. Shannon Region Conference & Sports Bureau will continue to work with our strategic partners in the region to attract this calibre of events.”

Adam Taylor, Director Aim Well Events described how important events such as this are for grassroots sports in Ireland, saying, “It’s fantastic, with this event here we’ve been able to develop a huge grassroots following, in particular with UL Archery, they really got into this event, they’re here volunteering and they’re doing more training sessions now because of it, so it’s really helping the grassroots grow in Ireland.”

Events such as the  World Archery Youth Championships being hosted in Ireland have an immense impact on youth involvement, Taylor said because of this event in particular “a schools programme has come out with Archery Ireland”, he said this will encourage young people to “come out and try it” noting, “It’s not just the archery, it’s getting involved in the sport and it’s also helping with this sort of stuff, the average age of volunteers here is 18 to 19.”

Limerick has a strong connection with archery back to when Mary Vaughan represented Ireland in the 1984 Olympics.  The UL archery club is one the largest and strongest Archery clubs in Ireland and will no doubt be boosted on the back of staging this international tournament.

The Championships included two age categories, Under 18 and Under 21, as well as two bow styles Recurve and Compound with athletes competing in individual, team and mixed-team competitions.

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Pictures: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick