MARK WARD
Archery, in the South African context, is not a sport of choice and rarely practised in townships, so finding a champion in these areas is indeed remote.
However, Mitchell’s Plain has just produced a champion archer in Abdud-Dayyan Parker, a 12-year-old home-schooled pupil from Portland and a member of Arrow Archery Club.
He might as yet not be on his way to this year’s Olympic Games, but who knows with such prowess as he has shown recently, he might be in-line to represent the country at the 2028 Olympic Games in America.
Abdud-Dayyan’s bags are, however, packed for next month’s national championship in Gauteng after accumulating top points over a series of competitions which earned him the Western Cape champion crown. The tournament will be staged in Randburg from Sunday March 17 to Tuesday March 19.
Abdud-Dayyan, along with mother Zeenat and father Moeneeb are equally excited and proud of his pioneering achievement in the sport which he only started taking seriously a little over a year ago.
According to father Moeneeb, the archery bug started to bite Abdud-Dayyan when he was exposed to the sport at his local mosque.
“He won all his competitions at the mosque’s tournaments and then I decided to join the Arrow in Portland,” says Moeneeb.
Abdud-Dayyan is not only the champion but also a record holder in the barebow discipline of the sport in his age group. According to the barebow discipline rules, the participants compete without the help of sight and stabilisers and shoot over 20 meters. To crown it all, he is the champion in both the indoor and outdoor categories.
On top of it, he achieved success with a record score of 650 out of a possible 750 points during the Western Cape tournament.
Erefaan Abrahams, chairman of the Arrow Archery Club, and Abdud-Dayyan’s coach, says while the sport is still new to the community, he and his family has been involved in the sport since 2018.
“The club came into being when we as a family became interested in the sport in 2018. As the interest grew, we decided to establish the club in 2020. Look, we only started participating in the Western Province’s competitions as a club at the beginning of last year. So Abdud-Dayyan’s accomplishment is unparalleled in the history of the sport.
“Quite a remarkable achievement. I must emphasize that there are four qualifying tournaments in the Western Province in which a competitor must participate in order to become eligible for selection for the Western Cape team,” he explained.
At this stage Abrahams club coach and is also the chairman of tripling-up as the director of shooting. Being the director of shooting is big responsibility in a sport where safety is major, says Abrahams.
