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An Olympic athlete and the British number one in archery visited Hailsham Youth Service’s this week to meet to some youngsters.

Patrick Huston, who is the first ever archer to win the Great Britain National Series Recurve title three times in a row in the same year (2017), paid a visit to young people in the Youth Hub, James West Community Centre, on Monday (April 11).

He talked about being an elite athlete and an Olympian, aimed to inspire them to take up a sporting activity, and teach them the basic skills associated with archery.

The visit was part of the No Knives project, which supports young people to make more positive choices when it comes to youth violence, knife crime and the carrying of weapons.

Olympic athlete and British Number One in archery visits Hailsham Youth Service’s. Photo by Hailsham Town Council. SUS-220414-112136001

From Belfast and having taken up archery at the age of eight, Patrick excelled from an early age, taking three youth world championship titles in his teenage years.

He earned three world championship titles under the youth level, and eventually competed as a member of the archery squad of Team GB at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Huston now trains full-time under senior national coach Richard Priestman for Archery UK, while remaining a loyal founding member of the East Belfast Archery Club.

Huston reached a career-best world ranking of 14 in November 2017.

Deputy youth service manager Simeon Brown said, “It’s fantastic to have an incredible ambassador for UK sport like Patrick pay us a visit and share first-hand experience with Hailsham’s young people about what can be achieved in life with hard work, persistence and dedication.

“We’re extremely grateful to Patrick and the No Knives project for their important work with young people, and for helping to make this visit happen.

“Patrick spoke to the young people about his incredible archery career and even taught them first-hand the ins and outs of archery - and how his path to becoming an Olympian and British number one in his field progressed from such an early age. We were all very inspired by his visit!”

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Olympic archer meets young people in Hailsham