National performance archery centre opens

A national archery performance centre where Britain's top competitors will train has officially opened.

The £3.6m Archery GB facility at Lilleshall, Shropshire, features 70m indoor and outdoor shooting ranges, allowing for practice in all weathers.

It has been paid for by Sport England and UK Sport and it will also be made available to community groups.

The indoor range was named in honour of Margaret Maughan, Britain's first archer to win Paralympic gold, and the outdoor range pays tribute to Simon Terry, the first British archer to win two medals at an Olympic Games.

Tom Duggan, Archery GB’s performance director, said it was "fitting to recognise their contribution to the sport and the programmes that they were a part of".

Previously Archery GB used a sports hall and a re-purposed synthetic football surface, but the decision was taken to build new facilities because they could not be improved to meet the standards needed.

Dr Kate Baker, UK Sport’s performance director, said: "It can be a real game changer for our Olympic and Paralympic archers, both in the run-in to Paris and looking ahead to LA and Brisbane."

The athletes moved into the new centre in early December.

Paralympian Nathan Macqueen said: “It’s just amazing, I truly believe its probably the best facility in the world for archery and that it belongs to us is just amazing."

Lisa Dodd-Mayne from Sport England said it was also important to give grassroots archers a chance to use the facilities, including young people, "to inspire and attract a future generation of archers".

As well as the ranges, the Performance Archery Centre includes training support areas and a meeting room named the "Los Angeles room".

Mr Duggan explained it was a reference to the host city for the 2028 Olympics and said that while Paris was the focus now "we also want to keep an eye on the horizon for LA".

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