More archery medals for Lodi's Walth

Oct. 5—Lodi resident Janice Walth made a bit of history last month while in Andorra.

The 18-year archery veteran competed in the Andorra International Open for VI (visually impaired) Archery Sept. 22 and 23, winning a bronze medal in the outdoor tournament.

What made the outdoor tournament memorable, Walth said, was that it was the first time in international competition that two visually impaired archers from the United States faced off for the bronze.

Walth ended up clinching the bronze from Kelly Thornbury of Wyoming in the competition.

Shortly thereafter, she took on Belgium's Ruben Vanhollebeke in the indoor competition, earning a silver medal.

"We've been friends for a long time, and we love to shoot against each other," Walth said. "Some day I'm going to beat him and he knows it. But really, just to be in the gold and silver round of the indoor competition was fun and challenging."

This was Walth's third time at the Andorra competition, She qualified for second place in both the outdoor and indoor competition in 2019, where archers must shoot at 30 meters and 18 meters, respectively.

She brought home silver in both disciplines that year.

"I really wanted to get to that point again," she said. "I had to really fight and struggle, and was frozen at times. My shooting wasn't up to par the first couple of days."

Another first that occurred in Andorra was the team trial competition. Currently, there is no official team competition for visually impaired archers at the international level. Walth said the archers, coaches and judges wanted to show that they're capable of participating in such an event.

For the team trials, a judge ranked all the archers then paired them off, regardless of what country they were representing.

Walth ended up paired with Andorra's Jordi Casellas.

"We all, including the hosts and judges, felt we did a good job working within our teams and keeping up with the pace of the matches," she said. "We're hoping World Archery will recognize our enthusiasm and hopefully include us in this type of competition in the future."

Born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, a degenerative condition of the retina, Walth has been a competitive archer since 2004, happening into the sport almost by accident.

"My husband (Courtney) was doing it, and it seemed like he was having a lot of fun," she said. "I just wanted to see what it was like, and when I finally figured out a technique, he built some adaptive equipment for me."

Walth credits part of her journey to the British Blind Sport Association, which provided her information on how to shoot and compete using the "tactile" technique, which is used internationally.

When first taking up a bow, Walth said she never imagined she'd be an international competitor.

Her husband was competing in local and state tournaments, and she asked organizers if there were any tournaments for the visually impaired.

That year, she was able to convince the Archers Association of California to officially sanction an event for the visually impaired.

She was the first blind competitor at the U.S. Nationals in Colorado Springs in 2005, which marked the complete sanctioning of visually impaired archery as a national sport in the U.S.

The 2007 Paralympic Archery World Championships in Korea marked the fist time visually impaired archery became fully sanctioned as a world event.

Walth won the overall silver medal at the event and set five world records in the process.

"When I first started, I didn't think about competing, especially at the world championship level," she said. "This sport has taken me and my husband to places all over the world that we would have never considered going. It's been an amazing time."

Walth is preparing for three international competitions next summer. For more information about her, visit www.seenolimits.org.