Diann Benson has again been crowned World Champion.
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She and her husband Grahame competed at the 2018 IFAA (International Field Archers Association) World Field Archery Championship in Potchefstroom, Diann added to her already vast collection of titles, winning the veterans freestyle unlimited division by more than 60 points.
Looking back at the first day, Grahame said Diann had “an ordinary day by her standards” with three misses but was still in the lead by just over 10 points at the end of the day.
She was then “on top of her game” in the second day's competition where she shot a Personal Best and extended her lead to 23 points.
The lady in second, who was from New Zealand (NZ), then shot a NZ record on the third day and reduced Diann’s lead to 17 points.
But Grahame said she “blew them out of the water” over the final two days of competition to claim the world title.
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Grahame, who also competed in the freestyle unlimited division, finished ninth.
He said it was the hardest week of archery they had competed in given the extreme temperatures.
Grahame said the lowest temperature they experienced was 37 degrees while the mercury rose to a top of 41 degrees during the tournament.
Some archers suffered heat stroke during the competition and had to be assisted from the course.
Grahame even suffered a nose bleed on the final day of shooting that lasted for about half an hour as he completed the last four targets.
“The conditions were probably the hardest I’ve ever shot in,” he said.
Grahame said he was happy with his result and it was the best he had achieved in an IFAA competition.
The championship was held at Elgro River reserve over five days.
The first two days, competitors shot 28 targets with four arrows for each target.
The third day was an animal round, which was again 28 targets but just one arrow for each of the targets.
On the final two days, the format was again four arrows each for 28 targets.
Grahame said the courses took about six hours each to complete.
The shortest course was 7.5km and the longest was 11.5km with archers were shooting out to 80 yards.
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