Rising young Winmalee archery star Jessie-Rose (Rosie) Walklate-Cooke’s consistently strong results at national tournaments this year have her on target for greater things to come at international level.
Rosie proved herself again at the 2015 Australian Bowhunters Association (ABA) and 3D Archery Nationals held in Wagga Wagga in April, winning a gold medal in each format (scoring a total of 1522 points and 416 points respectively) in the junior girls freestyle unlimited B grade competitions.
The St Columba’s Catholic College year 11 student was also part of the NSW squad that won a bronze medal in the teams event.
“It was pleasing because these have been my two main archery disciplines,” Rosie, 16, said.
“It was very windy and wet in Wagga and I think my experience helped me deal with that.
“For a month before the tournament I was probably shooting about 1000 arrows per week during training and I also spent more time in the gym doing strengthening work.”
Even better, Rosie added an extra string to her bow in a more recent tournament — the World Archery Federation National Youth Archery Championships held in Penrith.
She came second in the cadet female category of Olympic archery, where 70 metres in the field is the standard target range and competitors shoot arrows in rounds called ends in compound target, field and clout formats.
“I’d only tried Olympic archery for the first time last September where I broke a 22-year-old junior club record, so I just thought why not continue in this new discipline,” she said.
“The target distance is much longer than what I was used to, but the basic skills were already there from other forms of archery so it didn’t take that long to adjust.
“In archery, you find that results can be determined 95 per cent by the mental approach and five per cent by other factors.
“If you do a bad shot first up, you have to let that go from your head straight away — you have to have a clear mind.”
At the nationals, Rosie came equal first in compound clout (with 310 points), second in compound field (359 points) and fourth in compound target, finishing in seventh place overall in Olympic archery.
Armed with extra confidence, advice from coach Grant Hughes and a sponsorship grant from Abbey Archery, she will next compete at a regional field archery tournament in Victoria later this month.
But her sights are set on a much bigger target on the not too distant horizon.
The next World Field Archery Championships will be held in Australia — in Wagga Wagga — in September 2016.
“To be able to compete at a Worlds here in NSW is so exciting,” she said.
“It’s definitely something that will be my focus for the next 15 months.
“I know I’ll need to continue to work very hard.”
