Beginners Lessons Were Ideal Investment
19th September
The Newsletter
By Nigel Ringland
Not many people have heard of the name Mark Nesbitt but the 17 year old from Banbridge is already one of the countries top archers and he has the Olympics in London in three years time firmly fixed in his sights.
“I’ve been doing archery for seven years now, since I was ten. I went to my local leisure centre in Banbridge for an Open Day with my dad and brother and we were taking a look around at all the different sports that were on display and archery was one of those sports and I thought to myself, I’d like a go at that and I found it very interesting and after that my dad booked some beginners lessons,” he explained.
It was an investment that was going to pay dividends. This year has been a spectacular one for Mark with two gold medals, individual and team, at the Youth Olympics in Sydney earlier this year and he followed that up with more success.
“It’s been a great year for me from winning the two gold medals at the Youth Olympics to a silver at the Worlds and then at the Europeans as well were I was beaten by a point. I’m very pleased with my progress this year and hopefully that will get even better next year but it’s all about the build-up to 2012 and there’s still a lot of work to be done before that.”
Mark is already provisionally ranked inside the top ten in the UK and he’s not far behind some of the established stars of GB archery such as multiple Olympians such as Simon Terry.
Watching him shoot at the indoor range at the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland based at the University of Jordanstown it’s astonishing at the skill levels needed to participate in world-class archery. Mark was shooting at a target 70 metres away, impossible to see with the naked eye, and hitting a bullseye only a few inches in diameter.
He explains, “I train six days a week and I try to shoot 200 arrows a day and that would normally take two hours. I would try and take one day of a week so it’s all about shooting as much as I can as well as a bit of physical work in the gym and I’d also be up at SINI once a week at least using their fitness suite and shooting on their indoor range.”
Mark is at the Asian Games in Calcutta, India this week pitting his skills against the best in the world. It’s man against man meaning that a lot of the sport is mental as well as skilful and he gets enormous help from the experts at SINI.
“I work very hard with the sports psychologist at SINI. I think the sport is 70% mental and the rest strength and concentration so the work I’m doing here is extremely important. As well as that there are all the facilities including the indoor range for practice. It’s very important to have these facilities on your doorstep.”
Mark will return to India next year for the Commonwealth Games where he must be considered a realistic medal chance for Northern Ireland taking into account his rapid and excellent progression. He’s also qualified for the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics.
With thanks to Richard Mulligan, Sports Editor of The Newsletter
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