Scottish Archers Set to Train at Riverside Sports Arena
This is an archived article from 31 May 2023.
South Ayrshire Council's Sport and Leisure team are working in conjunction with Scottish Archery to offer training access for Scottish archers under the age of 21 at the new Riverside Sports Arena in Ayr.
Riverside Sports Arena opened earlier this year and features state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor sporting facilities including an eight lane, 400m running track; a six lane, 60m indoor running track; a field events area; and a 3G all-weather pitch, along with fully accessible changing areas and a café.
The fantastic indoor training provisions make it the perfect location to support facilitation of year-round indoor training for Scotland's under 21 and Club Ready talented athletes. The arena will also be available for event access during the season.
Recently, the team had the pleasure hosting archer Sarah Prieels and Paralympic archer Cameron Radigan to train alongside Scottish under 21s. Sarah is currently ranked 10th in the world, 2nd in the UK and 1st in Scotland shooting compound. She travelled from Edinburgh to complete bow tuning at the required distance of 50m for compound. Cameron is ranked 23rd in the world and has been supporting the Junior Squad while progressing his own training for the Paralympics.
They both spent some time with the junior compound archers, including local archer Laura Paterson (currently ranked 1st for under 16s outdoor archery), sharing their experiences and they were highly impressed with the year-round facilities on offer for athletes at Riverside Sports Arena.
Councillor Brian Connolly, South Ayrshire Council's Portfolio Holder for Sport and Leisure said: "I'm absolutely delighted that Riverside Sports Arena will now host the training for under 21s Scottish archers.
"This is exactly the type of activity that the arena was built for, allowing athletes from Ayrshire and further afield to train and compete at the highest level. The facilities are second to none and the space is flexible, making it perfect to support all athletics activity."