9 December 2010

Norma overcomes adversity to hit her targets

Photo opportunity: 3pm on Monday, 13th December at Institute of Sport and Exercise, University of Dundee. Norma will be showing her skills with a bow and arrow.

A University of Dundee employee, who spent 18 years battling a serious back injury, has emerged as one of Britain's top archers just 18 months after trying the sport for the first time during a Campus Sport taster session.

In April 2009, Norma Smith, who works part-time at the University Health Service, attended a 'come and try' session for staff led by the members of the University’s Archery Club and proved such a natural that she went on to finish runner up in the Scottish Outdoor Championships for a recurve bow, just a year after picking up a bow for the first time.

She was then selected for the Scottish team to compete in the British Championships, where she recorded a personal best score, and soon after achieved her 'Bowman' classification, a level reached by only around 15% of archers in the UK.

Norma (46), who lives in Dundee, now practises four times a week, both with the University’s Archery Club at the Institute of Sport & Exercise (ISE), and with her club side, Links Archers in Montrose. Her commitment to personal improvement and training, and no little natural ability help explain the astonishing success she has achieved in such a short space of time and the fact she has shot up the rankings past experienced archers.

Such meteoric rise would have been impressive under any circumstances, but for Norma, who suffered a serious spinal injury nearly 20 years ago, and who experiences chronic back pain and stiffness as a result, it represents a truly special achievement.

'The past 18 months, since I first took up archery, have been fantastic,' she said. 'I'm getting more exercise, and a real sense of achievement. Because of my injury, I hadn’t done anything competitive for a long time, and I’m really enjoying myself.

'I suffer from pain and stiffness in my lower back and leg, and so if you'd said to me a couple of years ago I’d be outside taking part in competitions in wet weather I wouldn’t have believed it. Now I’m out shooting four times a week and, having lost some weight, it seems to be helping with my back pain. I am absolutely loving it.

'I have to manage the pain the best I can and, for me, archery meant adapting some of the skills involved in the sport so I can do it. Originally I got involved because I was interested in trying archery and because I thought this might be a possible way of getting some gentle exercise, which isn’t easy for me because of my back. In archery, most of the work is done with the shoulders, and the lower back is mainly used for stabilisation, which I can manage.

'When I first started, I would do some archery then have to sit down before doing some more, but I’ve gradually built up the amount I can do while managing the pain. I was always interested in sports where aiming plays a big part. I used to go clay-pigeon shooting and I enjoyed things like ten-pin bowling in the past, but now I am restricted in what I can do.

'That's why I thought archery may be something I could manage and so I went along to one of the 'Come and Try' sessions for staff at ISE.'

Since doing so, Norma has not looked back, and she is now rated 4th in Scotland (outdoors) and 53rd in the UK. Given her current rate of progress so soon after taking up the sport, she hopes to break into the top 50 soon, continue to improve, and to take part in more championships.

She continued, 'I had been seeing the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as something to aim for, if you’ll pardon the pun, but unfortunately archery won’t be one of the sports included in 2014.

'I am always aware that I have to be mindful of the situation with my back and how that develops, so we will just wait and see what happens. For the moment I’m really enjoying myself and am getting a lot out of the sport.'

Paul McPate, Assistant Director of ISE, said everyone involved with Campus Sport was proud of what Norma had achieved in a short space of time, especially given the adversity she had battled against.

'Norma's success is nothing short of remarkable,' he said. 'We are all justly proud of her and we hope she keeps developing as an athlete. Her enthusiasm for the archery is clear for all to see, and it is a real inspiration for others to take up a sport. Norma’s experiences show what you can get out of sport, and we hope other members of staff come along to our sessions and have a go for themselves.

'We hope that, with additional sports science support and guidance from ISE, we can help Norma to continue her meteoric rise in archery and enable her to continue to succeed on the national - and hopefully international - arena.'

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277