LOCAL archery duo Sally Gilder and Caitlin McCarthy are preparing to fly the flag for Great Britain at the Moscow Youth Cup second leg, which starts on Monday.
Seventeen-year-old Gilder of Evesham and 18-year-old McCarthy of Stratford are both relishing the opportunity of representing Britain as they bid to boost their burgeoning reputations.
Gilder, a member of Evesham Archery Club who took up archery in 2006, was placed second in the national junior rankings in 2013 and was also 2013 Junior Euronations and Commonwealth champion.
This is a second Team GB selection for McCarthy, who has previously represented GB in South Korea last year and shoots for Royal Leamington Spa Archery Society.
Following a vigorous selection shoot, 29 archers have been chosen to represent their country in the event, which runs until July 12.
The team selected range in age from 13 to 20 and compete in both the recurve and compound disciplines. Many of the team competed at the recent European Outdoor Youth Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where the GB team was extremely successful and returned with four team medals.
The recurve team consists of numerous international Gold medallists, including Bradley Denny, Joe Ground and Jack Masefield who won the cadet men’s recurve team gold medal at the European Outdoor Youth Championships in May and Patrick Huston who won double gold at the 2013 World Youth Championships in China.
Bryony Pitman also brings plenty of international level experience to the recurve cadet ladies.
The compound team also contains many European medallists from this year’s tournament in Slovenia, as well as archers who have won national medals on home soil and are now hoping to continue their success in Europe.
Sara Symington, Performance Director of Archery GB, said: “We have selected a really strong squad for this tournament, with a mix of current medallists, such as Patrick Huston, and up and coming young archers who are taking to the international stage for the first time.
“It was great to see the young archers working together as a team in Slovenia and I’m sure they will continue to help each over improve in Moscow. After the four European Outdoor Youth Championships medals, we are hoping for the accolades to continue coming in Russia.”