Archery Jamaica wants help to make regional debut

JAMAICA’S ARCHERY team is hoping to make their international debut at the Caribbean Development Championships in the Dominican Republic in September.

However, Archery Jamaica’s athlete development manager Page Brown said the overall expenditure to support the 12-member team at the competition is more than the organisation can afford.

“To cover the cost of entry, stay at the hotel and to basically stay there for the week that the competition is going on, we’re looking for around $4 million,” he said.

As such, the organisation launched a Gofundme account last week to ask the public and organisations for financial support.

Brown, who also serves athlete-coach on the team, said going to this competition would help Jamaica unlock new levels of development in archery for Jamaica.

“Archery is brand new in Jamaica. We are starting something from the ground up and we have had only local tournaments so far,” he said.

“In order to compete on an international level, we have to start somewhere and this tournament is coming up, so we decided to say let us just start. To be recognised by World Archery, we also have to have an international presence.”

Despite the newness of the sport to Jamaica, Brown said he thinks the team has a good chance of doing well at the championships.

“Checking the international board on the average scores per archer, I can easily say we are in the higher percentile of scores, so I think we definitely stand a chance to finish strong,” he said.

Ultimate goal

According to Brown, the competition is also to be used as a stepping stone to the ultimate goal of making it to the Olympics.

“The challenges will be there but the only way to beat those challenges is to go out and face them,” he said.

He said the Jamaica Rifle Association (JRA), who are the overseers of Archery Jamaica, have been doing their best to help the team realise this dream, including assisting them to get to the Dominican Republic.

“The Jamaica Rifle Association put on a fundraising shoot to help us out and we are also getting sponsorship from the JRA and other companies,” he said.

However, when asked if JRA or Archery Jamaica has reached out to government bodies for assistance, Brown gave this answer:

“I am sure members of our executive board did, I am the lead coach there so every little matter might not pass through me immediately but we have a team that is working hard to raise this money and are ensuring they are trying every avenue possible,” he said.