SA archer wins gold in New Zealand world champions

Shooting her personal best of 299/300 at the World Championships is a goal she can now tick off her list of achievements.

DANYA Thompson, from Bluff, has taken the international archery world by storm and was named world champion in her division, Freestyle Unlimited – Cub Female on Saturday, 13 April at the New Zealand 2019 World Indoor Archery Championships.

The Brighton Beach learner competed with more than 200 archers from 13 countries. Her final score securing her first place spot was 885/ 900. Although this was not her first trip overseas, it was her first time competing internationally.

Her travel to New Zealand proved to be quite the experience, “My highlights of New Zealand were travelling from Auckland to Wellington by car and seeing how beautiful the country was. We stopped in various places and got to see old volcanoes and the hot springs that stank as the sulfur was coming out. We also went up Mount Victoria in Wellington where the wind chill dropped the temperatures to close to zero degrees. The Wellington Zoo was amazing, I got to see a Red Panda and Kiwis that are nocturnal creatures,” she said.

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Shooting her personal best of 299/300 at the World Championships is a goal she can tick off her list of achievements. She achieved this by always staying calm and collected, something she learned from archery – only worry about the next arrow.

Meeting new people was also something she looked forward to at the competition, making friends from New Zealand, Brazil and Sweden. “We took a lot of pictures together and exchanged our shirts with each other, it was cool.

Danya has not stopped smiling after her day-long flight back home to South Africa. Her win has left a permanent smile on her face and plenty of happy tears. ” It was such a proud moment, I had worked so hard to get there. My next goal is to be a Protea archer so I can wear the gold and green with pride,” she said smiling.

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