Not bowing to pregnancy

Pregnancy and using her garage for practice has been no impediment to archer Jo Armstrong winning her first national title.

Seven months pregnant, Jo took out the gold medal in the women's recurve division at the National Indoor Archery Championships.

Jo said while the baby bump did not effect her "pull back" technique, it did add another dimension.

"It was more a mental concentration thing with the baby moving around."

Shooting from 18m away from the target, Jo's combined scores of 509, 525 and 509, each from a possible 600, meant she breezed to the title.

Her score would have also been good enough to be placed sixth in the men's competition.

The championships were held at four venues around the country, with Jo travelling to Dunedin to compete, and then the results were collated and compared.

Jo said she was pretty chuffed with her result as she had worked hard to keep her fitness up for the event.

"I decided to make it the last event and it has been tough but well worth it."

The mother-to-be started her archery career while attending university in Cambridge, England, where it was a popular pastime.

Jo decided to get back into the sport a couple of years ago and roped in her husband David and two stepsons, who all loved it.

At the moment the teacher is also still managing to beat her student husband and both are members of the Geraldine Archery Club.

Getting the right distance to practise at home is a bit more problematic.

Jo has to open their garage door and then shoot into the garage, which she admitted took the neighbours by surprise at the start.

Deputy principal at St Joseph Primary School in Timaru, Jo says her workmates are used to her fitness regimes as her other passion is Latin dance, which she was also teaching up to a couple months ago.

Jo said it would be a tough choice if she had to pick between archery and the salsa, both of which she loved.

After having the baby she intends to again pick up the bow and hit the dance floor.

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