Archery GB Youth Festival 2026 – A Fantastic Week for Northern Ireland
The Archery GB Youth Festival 2026 has officially come to an end after a fantastic week of competition at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
This year, 21 archers from Northern Ireland travelled to the Youth Festival, competing across qualification, the Home Nations event, pairs, team and individual matches.
Throughout the week, our young archers represented themselves, their clubs and Northern Ireland brilliantly, supporting one another on and off the shooting line and bringing home an impressive collection of medals along the way.
Northern Ireland Archers
A huge congratulations to all 21 archers who competed:
🏹 Sofia Robson
🏹 Emily Smyth
🏹 Ethan McKinney
🏹 Jack Tomlinson
🏹 Jess Whittley
🏹 Erin McAteer
🏹 Erin Lunney
🏹 Mariam Abdelfattah
🏹 Sam Jones
🏹 Harry Black
🏹 Adam McBride
🏹 Claudia Bloxham
🏹 Katie Jennings
🏹 Ed Teggart
🏹 Luke Keenan
🏹 Zack Kelly
🏹 Ashton Kelly
🏹 Jamie Woodhead-Halliday
🏹 Ronin Devine
🏹 Nova Telfer
🏹 Gareth Sempey
Clubs Represented
- Lisburn City Archery Club
- Ballyvally Archers Banbridge
- Muckamore Company of Archers
- Campbell College
- Lough Cuan Bowmen
One of the highlights of the week was seeing archers from across our clubs come together as one Northern Ireland team. Regardless of club or discipline, everyone supported one another through the highs, the close matches and the tougher moments.
Home Nations
🥇 Katie Jennings & Ed Teggart – Compound Youth Gold
🥉 Sofia Robson & Emily Smyth – U18 Recurve Bronze
Pairs
🥇 Emily Smyth – U18 Recurve Pairs Tier 4 Gold
🥇 Sam Jones – U18 Recurve Pairs Tier 3 Gold
🥇 Ronin Devine – U15 Recurve Pairs Tier 2 Gold
🥇 Luke Keenan – Compound Youth Pairs Tier 2 Gold
🥈 Erin McAteer – U15 Recurve Pairs Tier 2 Silver
🥈 Adam McBride – Compound Youth Pairs Silver
🥉 Jess Whittley – U18 Recurve Pairs Tier 4 Bronze
🥉 Erin Lunney – U18 Recurve Pairs Tier 3 Bronze
Team Matches
🥇 Claudia Bloxham – Recurve U15 Female Team Gold
🥇 Jess Whittley – Recurve U18 Female Team Gold
🥇 Harry Black – Recurve U15 Open Team Gold
🥈 Luke Keenan – Compound Youth Open Team Silver
🥈 Nova Telfer – Barebow Youth Female Team Silver
🥈 Katie Jennings – Compound Youth Female Team Silver
🥉 Jamie Woodhead-Halliday & Mariam Abdelfattah – Recurve U15 Female Team Bronze
🥉 Adam McBride – Compound Youth Open Team Bronze
Individual Matches
🥈 Katie Jennings – Compound Youth Female Silver
🥈 Claudia Bloxham – Recurve U15 Female Silver
🥉 Ed Teggart – Compound Youth Open Bronze
More Than Medals
While the medal haul is a fantastic achievement, the Archery GB Youth Festival is about so much more than results.
It is about gaining competition experience, shooting close matches, achieving personal bests, making new friends and creating memories with archers from across the country.
Whether our archers returned home with a medal, a PB, a match win, more experience or simply some brilliant memories, every one of our 21 Northern Ireland archers should be incredibly proud of what they achieved during the week.
For some, 2026 was their first experience of the Youth Festival, while for others it may have been one of their last. We hope the friendships formed and memories made at Lilleshall stay with them for many years to come.
A huge thank you must also go to all of the coaches, team staff, parents, families, clubs and volunteers who supported our young archers throughout the week.
Events and experiences like the Youth Festival simply would not be possible without the countless hours of work, travelling, coaching, encouragement and support that happen behind the scenes.
Most importantly, it was fantastic to see everyone come together as one team, regardless of club, supporting and cheering each other on throughout the competition.
Northern Ireland might be small…
BUT WE ARE MIGHTY!
Congratulations to all 21 archers on a fantastic Archery GB Youth Festival 2026.
Now it’s time for some very well-earned rest! 🏹
LET’S GO NINJAS! 🥷🏹
