For the second year in a row former Paralympic archer, Bathurst’s Arthur Fisk, has been recognised for his abilities as a bowmaker at the Australian Archery Hall of Fame Expo in Liverpool.
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The triple Paralympian, who competed in three Games at Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992 and Sydney in 2000, said he had always wanted to get into bowmaking after Sydney and he is now widely recognised as one of the best in Australia.
Fisk was able to go one better than last year, taking out the overall Ross Herron Bowmaker award as well as the longbow and deflex-reflex divisions.
“This is the third time that they have held the Hall of Fame Expo. At the first one they didn’t hold the awards, at the second one I won the longbow and deflex-reflex and this year I won those as well as the overall award,” Fisk said.
“That [the overall award] is what I was going for. I missed out by half a point last year, so I went close, but this year I was able to get there.”
Fisk was introduced to archery as part of his physiotherapy after he suffered an injury in 1984 that put him in a wheelchair.
He said that when he started the sport he struggled to hit the target at all, but it made him determined to improve and by 1988 he had qualified for a spot on the Australian Paralympic team for the Seoul Games.
Around the same time he was competing in the World Wheelchair Games and the FESPIC Games in Japan.
He went on to compete in Barcelona and Sydney as well as the FESPIC Games in Korea in 2001 before turning his attention to the craft of bowmaking.
Fisk was helped in his new quest when he met one of the world’s leading bowmakers, Bob Wilson, after the Sydney Games and the pair have remained friends ever since.
Fisk’s product, the Frisky Bows, have become hugely popular and are widely recognised for their craftsmanship and quality.
The 60-year-old doesn’t shoot anywhere near as much as he did when he was competing, preferring to concentrate on his bowmaking, and he said it had brought the fun back into the sport for him.
“Making bows is a hobby of mine. It’s something I’d always wanted to do and I make my bows and test them.
“I shoot for fun now. When I was shooting competitively I was training six days a week and trying to make score levels. I went to three Paralympics and competed several times at the World Wheelchair Games in England.”
He said that his bowmaking has given him an extra sense of purpose.
“My wife and my children have been very supportive of me,” he said. “Making bows is my passion. I was a carpenter and [after my injury] no-one would employee me, so making bows has given me something to do.”