WEST BANGKA – To support the achievements and improve the skills of archery athletes in West Bangka, PT Timah Tbk provides an archery field as a place for athletes to practice preparing for the IV Provincial Sports Week (Porprov) which will be held next year.
West Bangka will host the sporting event every four years, various preparations have been made. Not only the match venue but also athletes from various sports continue to practice, including archery athletes.
Chairman of the Indonesian Archery Association of West Bangka Regency, Ikhsan Taufik said that the archery sport in West Bangka was only formed in 2018 and has been registered at the West Bangka KONI. Currently, the archery branch continues to grow with the support of PT Timah Tbk.
"Before PT Timah built an archery training facility at Unmet, athletes only practiced at home. Then I took my children to training schools. After several clubs were established, then there was attention from each club, PAC, MEKA, then came here for joint training," he said, Wednesday (2/3/2022).
Ikhsan said that in 2021 his party applied for a field loan for joint training from several clubs to prepare for Provincial Sports Week. The reason is that the club's existing training ground does not meet the standards.
"In my opinion, PT Timah is a pioneer for the development of archery in West Bangka," he said.
Not only providing a field for athletes' training, but PT Timah Tbk also supports archery competitions at the Open Bangka Barat Archery Competition which will be held on 11-13 March.
This championship will compete against all classes including Horsebull (traditional archery). This event is not only to hone athletes' skills but also to look for athletes who will compete in Provincial Sports Week.
"PT Timah Tbk's support for archery in West Bangka is not only in the field but also supports archery events both morally and materially. We also fund several events by PT Timah Tbk," he said.
"We thank PT Timah, hopefully, we will continue to consistently support archery in West Bangka," he continued.
Although the sport of archery is relatively new in West Bangka, it has managed to carve out various achievements. Where recently in the provincial level championships in Mandara Pangkalpinang, adult archery athletes won bronze and at the children's level there were gold and bronze medals.
One of the West Bangka Archery athletes, Putri Ayu Azahra (11) who won a gold medal at the Pangkalpinang Mandara Championship, aspires to become a national archery athlete.
"God willing, I want to be a national athlete. In the 2022 West Bangka Archery Competition Open Championship at the West Bangka district government, the hope is to get gold again so that I can represent West Bangka in the 2023 Provincial Sports Week event. Thank you PT Timah for supporting me to realize beautiful dreams by there is an adequate training ground," he said.
Similarly, the youngest archery athlete, Adam (6), a student at AL Ikhsan Islamic Elementary School, is so enthusiastic about aiming for an archery bow during practice. He was also interested in becoming a retaining athlete. For him, there is a lot of fun such as training focus and others.
"At first, my father was invited to practice, he was quite happy because apart from art, he was taught to focus on aiming so that he was right on target, hopefully, later in the event he will get an achievement," he said.*
