National archery champion who fired her first arrow aged 11 during visit to Warwick Castle returns to spot where it all started​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

A national archery champion who fired her first arrow at the age of 11 during a visit to Warwick Castle has returned to spot where it all started for her.

Junior National Outdoor U18 Champion Emelia Hughes was joined by Olympic archer Tom Hall, who lives in Kenilworth, at the castle's festival of archery on Thursday February 16.

On the day, Emelia was reunited with her first archery instructor, Gareth Yearley, while Tom pitted his modern recurve bow against the castle bowman’s traditional longbow – demonstrating how the ancient art of archery has transformed into a modern sport.

During a visit to Warwick Castle in 2017, Emelia, aged 11 at the time, tried her hand at the ‘have-a-go’ archery stand after witnessing the resident archers.

From then on, she was inspired to take up the ancient craft in its modern sporting form.

Gareth Yearley, who was the archery instructor that led Emelia’s first have-a-go session in 2017, also returned to the castle.

On being back at Warwick Castle and meeting Gareth, Emelia said: “It’s surreal to be back here, in the spot where it all started and to meet Gareth again.

"When I saw the have-a-go archery at Warwick Castle back in 2017, I knew I wanted to try it and that first session led me to take a beginners’ course at my local club and my love for archery has just grown from there.

"It’s an exceptionally inclusive sport and it’s great to see other kids and families trying archery here as well as watching the castle’s bowman – hopefully they’ll be inspired to take up the sport too and see how far they can go.”

Now 16, Emelia is competing internationally for GB.

In 2022, she competed at the European Youth Cup in Bucharest, and the European Youth Archery Championships, which took place on home soil at Lilleshall.

Emelia was also won the Junior National Outdoor U18 championships, the Junior Masters and National Indoor Championships at U18 level in 2021.

She is currently undertaking a mechanical engineering apprenticeship at Hereford and Worcester Group Training Association through her employer Yamazaki Mazak, both of which have been exceptionally supportive of Emelia’s archery progression.

Tom Hall added: “It is great to be here at Warwick Castle and see how much the families and children are enjoying the castle’s bowmen demonstrate their skills – as well as having a go themselves.

"The traditional long bow and modern recurve bow are very different but it’s still great fun to shoot against the castle’s bowman and see how they compare.

"The main thing for me is to show that anyone can be successful in this sport, if they are willing to give it a go and keep trying.”

32-year-old Tom made his Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Having taken up archery at university, he has represented Great Britain at the World University Championships twice and World University Games once.

He was also part of the bronze winning team at the Archery World Cup in Antalya in 2018, and competed at the European Indoor Championships in February 2022, finishing sixth.

For more information about Warwick Castle’s Festival of Archery go to: warwick-castle.com/explore/events/february-half-term/