Australia’s National Para Archery Squad is training at Buderim as the team builds towards the LA 2028 Paralympic Games and Brisbane 2032 Paralympic Games on home soil.
The training camp at the Sunshine Coast Archery Club comes at a significant time for the sport, with the 2027 World Archery Para Championships awarded to the Gold Coast – marking the first time the event will be held in Australia.
The championships will run from August 30 to September 6 next year at the Gold Coast Performance Centre, with finals at the Broadwater Parklands.
The event will also serve as a qualification pathway for the LA 2028 Paralympic Games.
Among the athletes training on the Sunshine Coast is Christopher Davis, who became Australia’s first Para Archery World Champion in 2023 after winning gold in the W1 category at the World Championships in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
Davis competes in the W1 classification: the category for athletes with the most significant physical impairments in para archery.
Davis’s sporting journey highlights the adaptability of the sport.
Paralysed from the age of five following a viral illness, he shoots his compound bow using a mouth tab.
Davis bites down on the string and pushes the bow forward to generate the tension needed to release the arrow.
He only picked up a bow for the first time in 2019.
“I really enjoyed the feeling of shooting the bow and sense of accomplishment when it hit the target,” Davis says.
“That progressed to hitting the target and trying to get the arrows to land as close to each other as possible, which was also hopefully somewhere near the middle.
“I also get a lot of satisfaction from trying to work out why things might not be going too well and trying to correct it or find that extra 1 per cent.”
With the 2027 World Championships on home soil and Brisbane 2032 on the horizon, Australia’s para archery program is entering a crucial period, with the Coast playing a key role in the team’s preparation.
“When I shoot at the Sunshine Coast, I always look forward to the environment,” Davis says.
“It’s nice to shoot at a place where it’s fairly protected from wind.
“There are often quite a few people with lots of experience who are willing to pass on advice if asked as well.”
