TLA Sport

with Roger Jackson Please email full details to sport@thelocalanswer.co.uk

Ella Gibson on top of the world

As breakout years go, 2022 has been pretty special for archery’s new golden girl Ella Gibson.

The 22-year-old has taken the sport by storm over the past few months, rising to number one female compound archer in the world thanks to some quite superlative performances, performances that included dethroning the previous number one Sara Lopez in a thrilling head-to-head duel.

That win over the Colombian in Birmingham, Alabama, back in July, saw her win gold at the World Games, an event held in the same esteem as the OIympics by those who take part.

“It takes place only once every four years and features sports that aren’t in the Olympics,” Ella told The Local Answer. “It’s the Olympics for non-Olympic sports.”

Not surprisingly, she regards that as her biggest win so far, but it’s certainly not the only gold medal that she’s taken back to her parents’ home in Cirencester this year because she’s also won three World Cup events – in Turkey, Paris and Colombia – as well as the European Indoor title in Slovenia at the start of the year.

And she’s got power to add, too, because in October she’s competing in the World Cup finals in Mexico, another showpiece occasion for the sport when she will again be the one the others have to beat.

It’s fair to say that the former Deer Park School pupil has come a long way since first being introduced to the sport as a 14-year-old.

“Deer Park Archers came to my school and did a taster session,” recalled Ella. “It was one hour a week for six weeks. I tried it, liked it and was naturally decent at it.

Ella Gibson has enjoyed an outstanding year

“They suggested I take it up as a hobby and I joined the club when I was 15.”

The rest, as they say, is history, but although it quickly became obvious to everyone at the club that Ella had a special talent, it soon became apparent she also had the right mindset to succeed too – she knew what she wanted and she knew what she had to do to get there.

“I initially shot barebow and I broke national records and won national titles,” she said. “But I wanted to compete for Great Britain and barebow wasn’t recognised internationally.”

So what did she do?

“I switched to compound,” she said very matter-of-factly, although for a 16-year-old that was obviously a pretty big decision.

It was a good decision, though, because by the age of 17 she had got her wish and was shooting for Great Britain, flying out to South Dakota to take part in the world indoor championships.

“I came ninth,” she recalled. “I wasn’t happy, I thought it was terrible, I have very high expectations.” Indeed she does which is one of the reasons why she is on top of the world rankings now, of course. “Mindset is so important in archery, it’s a very mental sport,” she said. “In most other sports, the more you want it, the better you do, but that’s not the case with archery. “You have to stay level, very calm. You have to be consistent, you have to do the same action again and again. It’s similar to golf, the psychology is the same. You have to control your breathing and be steady under pressure.” But while the mental side is very important, there are physical attributes that you need as well to rise to the top of the sport. “Physically it helps if you are fairly strong, it’s a big advantage,” she said. “We have to lift a lot of physical weight on the bow, we are pulling back 60lbs of weight with each shot. “You need good core strength and stability in your trunk, especially in this country when you can be competing in very windy conditions.”

Full story online.