Naomi Jones
This week we caught up with archer and Masters student Naomi Jones.
Join the Archery Club! Do it because the opportunities are amazing and the support is amazing!
Naomi Jones
Individual Performance Programme athlete: Archery
Breaking news...
Updated: 10 February 2012
We are delighted to report that Naomi has just won team bronze with Team GB at the World Indoor Archery Championships in Las Vegas.
Congratulations Naomi!
Career highlight?
Winning BUCS Indoors this year (2011) with a Personal Best score.
Typical week of training, competitions and university?
I have competitions most Sundays during the indoor season - September- March - with regular travel for these competitions. I shoot four times a week with each session lasting a couple of hours and a competition every weekend, during the outdoor season - April- August - the time commitment is much larger. I also do strength and conditioning twice a week.
How do you manage to fit it all in?
I’m not sure there’s a secret. There were times where major competitions coincided with deadlines and it was a bit stressful but I got through it and that’s the most important thing.
How have the Performance Programmes helped you?
The TPP was good because when I first started in the gym I was in with people who had already been on it. While that was a bit intimidating, I think it was a lot less intimidating than it would have been to go in there on your own.
I applied for the IPP because I qualified for the Great Britain team to shoot at the World Indoor Archery Championship which is in February 2012 which I need to massively prepare for. The IPP is a more individually tailored programme which I will need this year and obviously the financial assistance is helpful.
I was also really delighted to receive the Edinburgh Global Elite Sports Bursary from the International Office which has helped enormously with my travel and competition costs.
What are the best bits about training and competing at Edinburgh and the University?
I couldn’t get training facilities like this anywhere else.
Naomi Jones
I came for the Open Day and thought it was a really amazing city and the way everything has gone I couldn’t have chosen anywhere better for what I’ve chosen to do. I didn’t do any sport before I joined the Archery Club in my second year of study.
Edinburgh University Archery Club is one of the best archery clubs in Britain and has been for many years. That pedigree and the help of my coach - Alistair Whittingham, Head of Performance Archery at the CSE - have certainly helped me get to where I am today. The facilities that the CSE has are fantastic. I couldn’t get training facilities like this anywhere else.
Sporting hero?
I guess that through being in the Archery Club the first people who I looked up to, as didn’t have much sporting experience, were the guys in the years ahead of me in the club. People like Jenny Jeppsson - Jenny Jeppsson was at Edinburgh University for 8 years, she won a total of 10 British University titles and has represented Sweden - who has been on the IPP programme before and Emma Downie - Emma Downie was at Edinburgh University for 4 years and was the travelling reserve archer for Great Britain at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. I looked up to them because I could really relate to what they were doing as they’ve done exactly what I’m doing.
In three years time…?
I defiantly would like to represent Great Britain again and I would like to continue my studies here into a PhD.
If you could go on holiday anywhere, where would you go and who would you take?
What kind of question is that! An honest answer is that I would go somewhere in the middle of nowhere to have some alone time! Somewhere Northern Europe may be Sweden and I’d probably shoot!
Your year ahead in sport?
I’m really looking forward to representing Great Britain for the first time and going to Vegas.
There are around ten days to go till we fly out so it’s the final preparations at the moment but I’ve had the British Championships and the ‘Face2Face’ another really big tournament in December and they both went really, really well so I feel prepared.
The Face2Face attracts some quite big names and it’s a money shoot so it was really a test and an opportunity to compete against the same sort of people who I’ll be competing against at the Worlds. I had quite an impressive second place finish there, coming second to America’s Jamie Van Natta who is ranked sixth in the World!
The second day was the British Championships and I managed to keep up my performance there and win it and that was pretty cool!
At the moment I can’t think about anything else but Vegas but its five days after we get back that the British University Archery Championships are so I need keep my focus just that little bit longer for that event
What else are you looking forward to this year?
I’m actually equally excited about the Masters course I’m doing and getting stuck into my research project. It is hard work but then I think its supposed to be!
Would you like to add anything else?
Join the Archery Club! Do it because the opportunities are amazing and the support is amazing!
Interviewed in January 2012.
This article was published on Mar 15, 2012