DUBAI, 15th January: A 15-year-old schoolgirl from Great Britain Jessica Stretton has become the cynosure of all eyes at the Second Fazza International Para Archery Championship Dubai 2016 that is being held at the Dubai Club for the Disabled until January 19th.

Bronze medallist at the World Para Archery Championships held in Germany in September 2015, Jessica has made giant strides in the sport since winning an Archery gold in the IWAS World Junior Games on her international debut. 

Jessica is poised to become possibly the youngest competitor at the Rio Paralympic Games this year having emerged as a strong contender to represent Team Archery GB.

“She has always worked very hard and focused on what she needs to do. Some of it has been wanting her to get stronger. At 14 she was technically good but she did not have strength to shoot the distance,” recalled Michael Peart, head coach of Team Archery GB whose faith in her talent has paid off.

“The year before (2014) she couldn’t do a single competition because physically she couldn’t reach the distance. I was always confident she would give a strong performance at the World Championships.  That’s  why I put her in our elite program producing excellent results in 2015,” said Peart who confirmed that she in a “strong position” to make the team to Brazil.

Jessica proved that she is Team GB’s brightest prospect by winning the W1 individual gold medal at international Para Archery competitions in Holland and Czech Republic but came up short against her more experienced teammate Joanna Frith at the World Championships though earning Team GB a place for Rio by winning the bronze medal match.

“Six months before World Archery introduced W1 for women, we started working on a group of people. Jessica has worked her way to be among the top three in the world. She is in the same category as Jo Frith – one is 15 and the other 50 something - which is the good thing about Para sport. You can be tall, short, older, younger, bigger or smaller, you can find a way to compete,” said Peart.

Jessica considers herself privileged to work alongside world champion Frith and gain from her knowledge.

Asked how it feels to be probably the youngest archer in the world, she said: “It does feel exciting. I feel I have achieved a lot for my age. It’s really fun.”

“I didn’t think that I would get this far in the two years I’ve been shooting. I didn’t believe I would be here as part of Team GB. It’s just an amazing achievement to get to be where I am now,” added Jessica who is not obsessed about winning but loves the adrenaline of competition.

Like any normal schoolgirl, she loves to read and sit in front of a computer but being a world-class athlete her greatest challenge is balancing her studies and training.

“That is a definite challenge. It’s been very hard. But I guess you got to find the right balance between going to school, coming home, training, doing your homework and enjoying a bit of down time,” said the Longdean School student from Hemel Hempstead.

For the moment, Jessica is enjoying her time in Dubai where Team GB has brought the largest contingent of 14 athletes for the second edition of the Fazza International Para Archery Championship.

“I love the warm weather. Makes a nice change from cold, rainy, snowy England,” she said gleefully.

The Fazza International Para Archery Championship is organized and supervised by the Dubai Club for the Disabled with the support of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center (HHC) and in cooperation with the Dubai Sports Council (DSC), the General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare and the UAE Paralympic Committee.

The number of participating countries for the Second Fazza International Para Archery Championship has increased from eight to 15 countries, namely: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, India, Iran, Iraq, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Great Britain, South Korea, Thailand and tournament hosts the UAE. There will be 50 athletes vying for honours in this competition, including 20 female archers.