Naomi Folkard - Olympic Archer
Naomi practising
at Leamington
Leamington's star archer is 24 year old Naomi Folkard, who has been shooting with the club since she was 7 years old. Coached for many years by June and Barry Farndon at Coventry's Dunlop Club, she has shot regularly for Great Britain since the age of 13, and at 16 was the reserve for the Sydney Olympics.
After finishing in 11th place in the Athens Olympics in 2004, in 2005 Naomi, also a talented musician playing violin and piano, graduated in music from Birmingham University. Since this time she has been a full-time archer with support from UK Sport, and local firms (solicitors Wright Hassall and estate agent Malcolm Hawkesford). She now has her sights firmly set on the Beijing Olympics.
In 2007 she was the British Outdoor Champion, the British Indoor Champion and the English Field Champion. She was ranked UK No. 1 for the seventh time in her career and for her international achievements she won the British Olympic Association Trophy for archery's 2007 Olympic Athlete of the Year.
Naomi is a brilliant all-round recurve archer, and has achieved international success, both individual and as a team member, at outdoor target, indoor target and field archery. Recent successes are:
- Silver at the European Indoor Championships 2006
- Gold (Team) at the European Championships 2006
- Silver at the Commonwealth Championships 2006
- Silver (Team) at the Commonwealth Championships 2006
- Bronze at the World Field Championships in 2006
- Gold (Team) at the European Grand Prix in Croatia 2006
- Bronze at the World Indoor Championships 2007
- Bronze (Team) at the World Championships 2007 (Secured 3 places for GB ladies at Beijing Olympics)
- Gold (Team) at the World Cup in Dover 2007
- Bronze (Team) at the World Cup in Korea 2007
- Gold at the World Field Championship Test Event 2007
The bronze medal winning ladies recurve
team at the World Champs 07 - Alison
Williamson, Naomi and Charlotte Burgess
Over the years Naomi has set many records in target archery at National, European and even world level. A lot of these have now been broken, but she still holds 15 junior and 14 senior national records, 1 junior and 1 senior European record, and 1 junior world record.
In the last three years Naomi has developed an interest in Field archery, and in her first year of competition finished third in the World Field Championships. She now also holds all of the ladies' recurve national records for FITA field rounds. In September 2007 she topped the World Field Rankings.
In 2008 Naomi hopes to compete, not only in the Beijing Olympics, but also in the World Field Championships in South Wales in September. She has already earned a place to represent GB at the European Indoor Championships in March.
Although she spends a lot of time abroad and training at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre, she still sometimes finds time to shoot with the club, and even to help with the beginners' sessions.
| Best Competition Scores (Feb 08) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Field | |||
| Ladies FITA | 1346 | 24 target FITA - Unmarked | 339 | |
| Double Ladies FITA | 2638 | 24 target FITA - Marked | 337 | |
| FITA 70 | 662 | 2x24 target FITA - Combined | 674 | |
| Hereford | 1252 | 24 target FITA - Mixed | 341 | |
| Double Hereford | 2502 | 2x24 target - Mixed | 678 | |
| 18 m FITA | 586 | |||
| 25m FITA | 580 | |||
| Combined FITA | 1158 | |||
| Portsmouth | 595 | |||
| Worcester | 297 | |||
| Stafford | 677 | |||
|
 Naomi and Alison Williamson at the Commonwealth Archery Champs 2006 with their silver medals |
| Equipment |
|---|
| Hoyt Matrix bow 66", 44lb 900CX limbs |
| Easton stabilisers |
| Easton X10 (650) arrows |
| Surelock sight |
| Range-o-matic Spinwing fletchings |
| Beiter nocks and pressure button |
