12 Aug 2026
Photo Credits: Malcolm Rees
By Keith Radigan, Scotland U21 Team Manager
On Monday, 14 members of the Scotland Under-21 Squad travelled to the Archery GB Youth Festival, a week-long competition featuring a 720 qualification round, individual head-to-heads, team events, mixed team events, and the Home Nations competition.
The variety of formats makes the Youth Festival one of the most valuable competitions of the year, allowing archers to gain experience, develop their skills, and enjoy competing against the best young archers in the UK.
This year, every archer exceeded expectations throughout the week, bringing home a total of 29 medals, which I believe is a new record for the Scotland Under-21 Squad. What makes this achievement even more remarkable is the strength of the competition this year. Six of our archers were attending the Youth Festival for the first time, with two of them earning places on Scotland's Home Nations teams.
The Team
Recurve:
Max Oakley, making his Scotland debut, enjoyed an outstanding Youth Festival. He won gold in the individual competition, silver in the U21 pairs, and silver in the Home Nations event alongside fellow teammate Lucy Coutts.
Lucy Coutts returned to competition after taking time away for university studies. In her final Youth Festival appearance, she helped Scotland secure silver in the Home Nations event.
Kristin Ward won bronze in the Under-21 Female Team event and also represented Northern Ireland to help complete their team, gaining valuable Home Nations experience.
Zac Ibrahim, competing in his final year as an Under-18 archer, produced an excellent performance, winning gold in the individual competition and silver in the team event.
Rebecca Bradshaw made her Scotland debut at her first Youth Festival, gaining valuable experience while competing in a very strong category.
Conner Allison, also attending his first Youth Festival and representing the Scotland Squad for the first time, won gold in the Recurve Under-15 Open Team event and silver in the Under-15 Pairs Team event.
Andrew Tolson, another first-time Scotland Squad member and Youth Festival competitor, won bronze in the Recurve Under-15 Open Team event and bronze in the Recurve Under-15 Pairs Tier 2 event.
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Compound:
Olivia Kendal reached the finals field twice during the week and came away with bronze in the individual event, bronze in the Home Nations competition, and gold in the Compound Youth Female Team event.
Cairn Boyd joined fellow teammate Olivia Kendal in helping Scotland secure bronze in the Home Nations competition.
Sophie Thompson competed at her first Youth Festival, gaining valuable experience and posting an impressive qualification score on her debut appearance.
Isobel Killin also represented the Scotland Squad and won silver in the Compound Youth Pairs Team Tier 2 event.
Barebow:
Kaitlyn Mason represented Scotland in the Home Nations competition, winning silver, and also claimed silver in the Barebow Youth Female Team event.
Jamie Robertson competed at his first Youth Festival and made an immediate impact. After helping Scotland win silver in the Home Nations event, he went on to win gold in the Barebow Youth Open Team event and gold in the Barebow Youth Pairs event.
Frazer Brown attended his first Youth Festival as part of the Scotland Squad, gaining valuable experience that will benefit him throughout his future competitions.
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Team Manager's Reflection
As Team Manager, this squad never fails to amaze me. Many of our new squad members attended primarily to experience the competition, learn how such a major event operates, and most importantly, enjoy themselves. We went into the week with no expectations other than learning and having fun. Instead, many of them exceeded all expectations and showed exactly what they are capable of.
To leave the Youth Festival with a haul of 29 medals is an incredible achievement. Six of those medals came directly from Home Nations teams, while further strong performances from Scottish archers helped secure third place overall for Scotland.
What made me proudest, however, was seeing every member of the squad enjoying the experience. Throughout the week I didn't see a single person without a smile on their face. To bring together 14 archers from different age groups and have them leave with such a remarkable medal count is something special.
I could not be prouder of what this team achieved.
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Well done to the Scotland U21 Team and big thank you to Team Manager Keith Radigan for supporting and managing the team throughout the weekend.
Results can be found here.