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Top archers crowned at AAN’s year-end shoot

• 3 Weeks Ago 18 December 2025

The Archery Association of Namibia (AAN) closed out another successful season with its year-end shoot hosted by the Swakopmund Archery Club last weekend. Held at Sport Club Swakopmund (SFC), the event attracted archers from Grootfontein, along with visiting competitors from Germany, who put their marksmanship to the test and squared up against their counterparts over the two-day competition. Saturday saw archers take to the range as early as 07:30 for warm-up, with the day featuring various distances and target faces ranging from 40 to 50 metres for a double World Archery (WA) 720 round. Medal matches followed to determine the winners. Saturday’s top archers were as follows: Lutz Wahlers - gold in barebow recurve men Elizabeth Taljaard - gold in compound women Saimi Shilunga - gold in compound women open Eugene Thuynsma - gold in compound men Jan-Lotz du Toit - gold in compound men open Eden Keyser - gold in compound U21 women Janko du Plessis - gold in compound U15 men Michael Kuly - silver in barebow recurve men Evan Meyer - silver in compound men De-Villiers Visser - silver in compound men open Alvin Iita - bronze in compound men open Sunday saw all targets moved to the 18m mark, as is traditional for the indoor round. According to AAN, this is “because we do not have to contend with snow and freezing temperatures like our northern hemisphere counterparts, allowing us to shoot the indoor round outdoors.” Archers contested the WA 300 round, followed by medal matches to determine the winners. The standout performers from the round were: Jacqueline Coetzee - gold in barebow recurve women Lutz Wahlers - gold in barebow recurve men Saimi Shilunga - gold in compound women open Jan-Lotz du Toit - gold in compound men open Elizabeth Taljaard - gold in compound women Eugene Thuynsma - gold in compound men Eden Keyser - gold in compound U21 women Janko du Plessis - gold in compound U15 men Christine Kuly - silver in barebow recurve women Michael Kuly - silver in barebow recurve men De-Villiers Visser - silver in compound men open Evan Meyer - silver in compound men Alvin Iita - bronze in compound men open Reflecting on the event, AAN secretary general Jacqueline Coetzee said Jan-Lotz du Toit was the most outstanding archer of the tournament after setting multiple new national records across outdoor and indoor rounds. “He set new national outdoor records of 314 for the WA 360 round, 625 for the WA 720, and 1 227 for the WA 1440, as well as new indoor national records of 273 for the WA 300 and 545 for the WA 600,” she said. AAN’s next event on the calendar is the New Year Field Shoot, scheduled to take place at Windhoek’s Yellowstone from 24 to 25 January next year. The next target event will be the Valentine’s Shoot, to be held at SFC from 14 to 15 February. – [email protected]