BOW SELECTOR

BOW SELECTOR

Ella Gibson, daughter of former Cirencester Round Table member Rob, talks to Tabler about her rapid ascent to the top of Britain’s archery rankings

Words by Adam Baggs

We have all faced that awkward silence in a Table business meeting when a member asks for a donation to their child’s sports team or school trip. What is the right response? Does charity start at home or will we be accused of nepotism by a community that has donated funds to good causes and might see it as us lining our own pockets?

We faced this situation just a few short years ago in Cirencester when former member Rob Gibson asked us to purchase a bow for his daughter’s early foray into competition archery. Was it the right decision? We think so - just this month she was crowned European Indoor Champion - and there can be no denying that age the age of 21 she has a world opportunity ahead of her.

How did you get into archery?

I’m from Cirencester, and got into archery when coaches from my now club came to my school. It started as just an hour a week. I really enjoyed it, and joined Deer Park Archers, based in Shurdington.

I started shooting recurve, then some members asked me if I wanted to shoot barebow. I said ‘sure’, and went to a competition and came second. I got the competition bug and afterwards told the coaches I wanted to shoot for GB. They suggested I try compound if I wanted to go national, as I was too old to do well in recurve. I got my first bow in December 2016, and a year later I competed for GB for the first time.

My dad had been an active part of Cirencester Round Table and I grew up around that – doing the sleigh at Christmas and fireworks. Table was really helpful with progressing my career, they supported the cost of a competition in the early days as well as buying a new compound bow, which really helped.

The bow Cirencester funded was used in my first GB competition at the World Indoor Championships. I came 19th, but that exceeded all our expectations. It helped me get experience, and from there I went to a European Cup and gained silver individually.

I now train almost every day, normally one or two days off a week. I cycle my arrow use, 250 some days, 400 other days, depends if I’m working on fitness or stamina. I also do gym with a strength coach, the amount of which varies according to my competitions. Outside of competition season, I do around three sessions a week.

Your rise has been meteoric hasn’t it?

From an objective point of view, yes it has happened quickly. I never spent a great deal of time doing it as a hobby, going straight into competitions instead when I was 16/17. I was very aware that many of my peers started at age nine or ten, so I felt I needed to mentally play catch-up.

However, I found my groove and have continued to improve. At the end of 2019, I broke the World Record for the WA 18m indoor round. That’s one of the main disciplines we compete in. It was totally unexpected, and I didn’t think I’d be shooting the score I did at that time.

Since then, I’ve broken a few more British and European records but the real achievement was winning the European Indoor Championships in Slovenia last month. It makes me the first Brit to win an individual title at that level.

The European Indoor Championships were really tough though. I was ill the week before so hadn’t prepared as I’d liked. I setup a whole different bow as I wasn’t happy with how things felt. In qualification I struggled but had a word with myself part way through to ensure I ranked 6th. This wasn’t great for me, but I felt like I had a place to improve from for the matches. My first match I shot 150, then a 146, followed by a 149 and a 148 in a really tight match, which put me through to gold. I had two days until my medal match, hit the practice range frequently and remained focused. I have never shaken so much in my life as I did in that final round - but I won, and it felt like a long time coming. Afterwards my coach cried and then said ‘never do that to me again’, apparently my nerves got to him too!

What are your ambitions?

I want to be the best in the world, not world champion, but number one in the rankings and regularly winning and recognised as that. Covid19 really hit my ambitions, but last year I ranked nicely, more than expected. I want to be in the top ten this year, and hopefully top 5 by end of next year.

What would you say to others looking to achieve success in any of their own goals?

My advice is to work hard and do the practice. There is no magic pill. It’s really important to get a good coach. I like to collect opinions and talk to different people about what they think. I can then work things out based on more than just one piece of advice, and by making my own decisions I can be self-reliant. You won’t always have people with you. If you are out there and something goes wrong, it’s great to have support but sometimes you just have to look to your own strengths and abilities.