Ben Nott and Alice Ingley were today selected to compete for Australia in archery at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore from August 14-26.

At just 18, Nott has already competed at numerous international archery competitions, including two Trans-Tasman meets and two junior world championships.

Nott moved from his family home in Sydney’s Inner West two years ago to take up a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra. He said he is happy to make the Australian team and had been working hard to leave an impact on the competition.

“I’ve been really busy,” Nott said. “School holidays just started and I’m in full training for the Youth Olympics and to try and make the Commonwealth Games team, so there has been a lot of training and just trying to get focused.”

“Singapore will be really full on – at my first junior world champs a few years ago I was pretty blown away, it was just a bit of a shock to see the best in the world all in one place.

“I had my first junior world champs just a few months after arriving at the AIS. Coming to Canberra was such a positive move – suddenly you’re thrown into this situation where everyone is shooting at such a high level and everyone has so much commitment and focus.”

The Lake Ginninderra College student was first introduced to archery through a friend at the age of 10 and picked up the sport with relative ease.

While his mate stopped shooting just  a couple of years later, Nott went on to get professional coaching and move through the ranks to become one of Australia’s brightest archery hopes.

“It’s not a sport that I ever thought I would get into when I was really young, but my mate had been going along and the club was just down the road,” he said.

“I started shooting pretty well, got a coach and just went from there.”

Nott will travel and compete with teammate Ingley.

Originally from Perth, Ingley trains and studies alongside Nott at the AIS. She got into archery through her family and after winning a bronze medal at the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival, has gone on to win a host of accolades in the sport including gold at the 2010 Junior National Championships, silver at the 2009 Senior National Championships and has this year been part of the 2010 Commonwealth Games squad.

Australian archery coach for the Games, Peter Feeney, said both archers have a good chance of securing positive results in Singapore.

“Australia is competitive in archery and our team has a good level of experience at international competition,” Feeney said.

“For such young archers, the Australian team has a wealth of experience which puts them in a great position going to Singapore.”

Elliot Woods
AOC