PATTON YOUTH SHOOTS DOWN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE

Winding up an exciting season of bow hunting competition which yielded six state championship titles, Brad Adams put the crowning touch on his efforts by capturing the world championship.

The 8-year-old Adams of Patton, Mo., shot a perfect score of 120 out of 120 to claim International Bowhunters Organization (IBO) World Championship Pee-Wee Division title Aug. 13 at Flatwoods, W.Va. The pee-wee division is comprised of archers 8-years-old and younger.

"We're really proud of him," said Lora Adams, Brad's mother. "We've all been in a cloud ever since."

However, although Adams managed a perfect score so did one of his rivals in the field of 69 youngsters, Levi Morgan of Arizona. As a result the two were forced into a shootoff to determine the champion. An angled target located across a ditch at a distance of roughly 15 yards was set up with each archer trying to hit closest to dead center. Adams hit the target straight on as the first shooter and Morgan failed match him.

"He knew he had to shoot perfect," Lora Adams said.

It wasn't the first high-pressure shootoff for the young archer who won two of his state titles in that manner. His six state championships this year came in the Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Kentucky tournaments. Two of those, Tennessee and Missouri, were won on perfect scores.

For his efforts in the world shoot, Adams won a gold championship belt buckle, a mountain bike and the McKensie Mule deer target used in the shootoff.

An archer since he a was 3-years-old, Adams will next season step up to the cub division which consists of 9- to 12-year-olds. The target distance in that division doubles to a maximum of 30 yards.

Another Patton archer, Richard Statler, also competed in the world championship in West Virginia. Statler, 16, finished fourth in the youth division.