Bermuda’s archers made a promising start to The Vegas Shoot 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada, yesterday.

The island’s six-member team of Bernard Wade III, Alleyne Weeks, Camerin Pickering, N’Dera Smith, Robin Selley and Jaydon Roberts produced a solid showing overall on the opening day of competition at South Point Hotel & Casino.

Senior archers Pickering, Wade II and Alleyne are all competing in the Recurve Flights. Pickering (276) ended the day in 45th, Wade II (271) 71st and Alleyne (188) 343rd.

Berkeley Institute student Roberts (284) is sixth in the Recurve Young Adult Male division, Cedarbridge Academy’s Smith (207) 71st in the Recurve Young Adult Female category and Bermuda High School for Girls’ Selley (285) third in the Recurve Youth Female division.

The team is accompanied by coaches Ross Roberts and Trina Roberts who gave the island’s impressive display the thumbs up.

“Overall it was a great day of shooting for the official start of competition,” said coach Trina Roberts. “The archers are evaluating today in preparation for the next rounds.

“The Recurve youth and young adults have one more round of competition on Saturday and their final score will be out of 600.

“The Recurve Flights have two more rounds over Saturday and Sunday and their final score will be out of 900.”

Bermuda’s archers are making their debut at the largest and most prestigious indoor archery event in the world where they are up against some stiff competition.

“It is the first time Bermuda has competed in this event and the team are ready,” Roberts added.

“The National Field Archery Association (NFAA) Las Vegas Shoot is the largest and most prestigious indoor archery tournament in the world. This event brings together nearly 4,000 archers from around the world, which includes Olympic champions.”

The distance for all divisions is 20 yards with each round consisting of ten ends; three arrows per end and a time limit of 2 minutes per end.

All championships, including Championship Young Adult Divisions and Flight Divisions, will shoot on either the 40 cm Vegas three-spot target face scoring areas or the 40 cm single-spot face with 10 through 1 scoring.

Non-Championship Cub, Youth, and Young Adult Recurve divisions will shoot on the 60 cm Indoor Face with 10 through 1 scoring. Cub, Youth, and Young Adult compound divisions will use the standard single-spot 40 cm Indoor Vegas Face or the Vegas three-spot target face.

Competitors are only allowed to enter in one division with archers 15 and older eligible for a share of the $500,000 prize money on offer at the championships which conclude tomorrow.