Sharon Vennard (born 16 September 1961) is a British competitive archer who competed at the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

Personal life

Vennard was born in

Exmouth Exmouth is a harbor, port town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and seaside resort, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe and southeast of Exeter. In 2011 it had a population of 34,432, making Exmouth the List of town ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England and now lives in

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland. She has

osteoarthritis Osteoarthritis (OA) is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone which affects 1 in 7 adults in the United States. It is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the w ...

in her spine, causing her constant pain, and

fibromyalgia Fibromyalgia (FM) is a medical condition defined by the presence of chronic widespread pain, fatigue, waking unrefreshed, cognitive symptoms, lower abdominal pain or cramps, and depression. Other symptoms include insomnia and a general hyp ...

which has resulted in her having mobility and balance problems. She has a BTEC qualification in Medical Laboratory Science.

Career

Vennard started her career as a recurve archer in 1997 and began representing Northern Ireland in 1998. However, her osteoarthritis - for which she underwent two spinal operations - severely curtailed her success, so she switched to

compound archery In modern archery, a compound bow is a bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs. In general, compound bows are widely used in target practice and hunting. The pulley/cam system grants the user a mechan ...

around 2006. She went on to compete in the British Indoor and Euronations competitions for Northern Ireland between 2007 and 2010. After being classified as a disabled archer in 2009, she joined the British Paralympic archery squad. She won gold medals in the team recurve events at the 2011

Stoke Mandeville Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil p ...

Open and at the 2011 Para-Archery World Ranking Event, held in Nymburk, Czech Republic. At the 2011 World Championships, held in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy, she was part of the British trio that finished 5th in the team recurve. She was selected as part of a squad of thirteen British archers to compete in her first

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

at the

2012 Summer Games The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

held in London, United Kingdom. In the women's individual recurve she qualified sixth after the opening ranking round, earning her a bye into the round of 16. In her first match she faced Javzmaa Byambasuren of Mongolia and won six sets to two. In the quarterfinal she competed against

Yan Huilian Yan Huilian (born 18 June 1983) is a Chinese archer. She won individual event in the 2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports even ...

the third seed from China and was beaten in straight sets, six to zero. In the women's team recurve Vennard competed alongside

Kate Murray Kate Murray (born October 9, 1962) is an American politician and attorney, and the former Supervisor of the Town of Hempstead, New York, United States. Education and early career Murray, a resident of Levittown, graduated from Boston College ...

and Leigh Walmsley. They placed sixth in the ranking round with a combined score of 1549. The trio faced the South Korean team in the quarterfinals but were defeated 188-153 and eliminated from the competition. Vennard trains at the City of Belfast Archery Club and is coached by Alistair Whittingham.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vennard, Sharon British female archers Paralympic archers for Great Britain 1961 births Living people Archers at the 2012 Summer Paralympics People from Exmouth 20th-century British women