Rhodri Curnow -

I started shooting in the autumn of 2005 mostly as a way to spend more time with my dad with the bonus that it meant I could keep shooting once I left Army Cadets. I quickly improved, winning the Powys First Year archer trophy and overall Championship at the same time, and was selected for the Welsh Junior team the following year for the 2006 indoor champs and the 2007 Euronations.

I carried on archery in university, representing Swansea Uni at BUCS Indoors and Outdoors as well as at the BUTC, which I helped organise when it was hosted in Swansea. During this time, I was selected to shoot for the Welsh Senior target team along with my now coach Tony Nilsen.

After leaving Uni, I walked away from competing to take care of some personal issues. After a frustrating return to target competitions in 2017 I shot my first field round and was instantly converted despite being horribly unfit.

In 2018 I was selected to shoot for the Welsh Field team at my first ever British Field championships and after steady improvements to my fitness, my technique and field craft I finished 2018 with 2 out of 3 needed scores for MB and a top 10 UK ranking.

In 2019 I was again selected to be in the Welsh Field team where we historically won the home nations trophy. Along with that win in Ireland, I managed to get my final MB score of the year, securing Master Bowman for the first time ever as well as the Welsh record for the Marked Field round. I also won the Welsh Field Championships in September.

I'm a strong advocate of the "Athlete first, archer second" mentality talked about by archers like Crispin Duenas. Besides working with my coach to improve technique and field craft, being physically fitter and stronger is the biggest factor in my improvements from 2017. The required mental toughness and discipline to get to the gym/ go for a run/ go to a boxing session has also really helped my performance under pressure, such as shooting for Wales or shooting a tough target on the course.

I'm currently shooting the Hoyt Exceed riser with one the Kaminski Rcore grips and Win and Win NS-G limbs. For arrows I'm using 430 ACE arrows with 130 grain points.