Great news to hear that Old Hallifordian James Woodgate has been selected as one of the six archers that will represent Team GB at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
James Woodgate left Halliford School last year and at just 18 is the youngest member of the archery team to be selected for Tokyo. On leaving Halliford James commented, “I am really happy with my A Level results and am grateful to the Halliford teachers for their hard work and support. I plan to take a gap year to focus on my archery in the Olympic squad.”
Headmaster James Davies said, “I am abso-lutely thrilled to hear this amazing news for our former Deputy Head Prefect, James. Throughout his time at Halliford, James had the gift of successfully balancing superb academic success alongside his overriding passion for archery. As his training needs increased, we were delighted to be able to help him with time in the Sports Hall at weekends, and I was always in awe of his incredible skill and talent for the sport. James possesses all the Hallifordian values of being a brilliant team player and superbly resilient, but most of all, it is James’ warm heart that we all miss here and which we are sure will enable him to be a splendid mem-ber of Team GB in Tokyo. As the brother and son of two former Olympians, I know some of the delights and demands that James will have ahead in the coming weeks and months and will be cheering for him on eve-ry step of his Olympic journey. There can be no greater honour than to represent your country. We are immensely proud of this magnificent achievement.’
James picked up the sport at the age of sev-en, started competing at the age of nine, and has always performed well in his age group, placing in the top 3 at National Champion-ships several times. In 2018 he won the Sur-rey Junior Outdoor Championships and be-came the reigning Southern Counties Ar-chery Society champion. He was then nomi-nated by Archery GB as one of the four ca-det recurve men to represent Great Britain at the European Youth Cup 1st Leg as part of their development programme. He finished the season with the gold medal at the Ar-chery GB Key Event Finals held in Caldicot Castle in Wales. From here, he has gone from strength to strength.
Mrs Woodgate commented, “We are abso-lutely ecstatic for James, especially after the challenges of the last twelve months. James really committed to his training in October and was presented with the selection oppor-tunity. The Olympic coaches and Perfor-mance Director were obviously impressed with his skills, but also his attitude. We put this down to the magic dust that is sprinkled at Halliford School. Both of my boys have benefited from their time at the school. They were mentored, encouraged and given the self-belief that they can achieve anything. James has a confirmed place at Warwick University starting in September and has every intention to aim for the 2024 Olympics and maybe even the 2028 Olympics.”
Archery joins shooting, triathlon, sport climbing, canoe and sailing as the first sports to announce the athletes selected to Team GB for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will take place from 23 July to 8 August 2021.