On the last Saturday in March, the “Rheingoldtaikai” was held by the Erkrath-based club dedicated to Japanese archery.What makes this team competition unique is that each team must hit targets of different sizes—with diameters of 36, 30, and 26 cm—from a distance of 28 meters. This requires a tactical approach. For example, younger archers might shoot at the largest target, provided the shot is a sure hit. If that’s not the case, it might be better for a more experienced archer to secure a hit on the larger target for the team.

Five teams, consisting of archers from North Rhine-Westphalia and bolstered by guest archers from Karlsruhe and Frankfurt, competed for the “Rheingold,” a large, golden river pebble. After the first round of 12 arrows, the KAMOME team from Karlsruhe / Mönchengladbach, which managed to hold onto this lead until the 4th round, but was then overtaken by BENTOBOX (Bottrop/Frankfurt/Schwerte) and NEKOMATA (from the host club) by just one hit.

In the final round, neither of the two leading teams was able to build a lead. Thus, a tiebreaker was needed to determine first place. Here, BENTOBOX demonstrated strong determination and clearly won the first-place prize.

After a break, during which participants could refuel at the buffet, the individual competition took place. In this event, all archers shot at targets of the same size. After two preliminary rounds, 5 of the 15 archers advanced to the final round. The total number of hits determines the winner or who advances, but the order in which the hits were scored also counts. Raghu, the guest from Frankfurt, hit the target with every arrow and thus took first place. Hannelore from Hürth took second place with one fewer hit.

The three archers who tied for third place had to determine the winner in a special way. In “Enkin,” what matters is who hits the center of the target.
Volker from the hosting club secured this prize.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all participants, volunteers, coffee makers, cake bakers, and others.
We’re already looking forward to next year’s competition.

Anyone interested in this traditional shooting art is cordially invited to join us for practice.

Automatically translated by DeepL