Three-time national barebow archery champion Brittney Kow has found herself proving that women are limitless. In November last year, the top archer competed in the Archery Jamaica 50 Meter barebow tournament and took home the top prize, all while six months pregnant.
Interestingly enough, Kow had only taken up archery in 2021 after visiting the club with her friends for the fun of it. But once she took up the bow and arrow, she fell in love with it and began competing.
“I loved that this was not an art-based hobby. It was something that I could push myself in and fully enjoy without pressuring myself creatively. Don’t get me wrong, I still had the prettiest bow and really pimped my stuff up,” she told Flair.
It was a struggle for her to get practice with archery amid the pandemic with the lockdown days as well as clashes with her work schedule, but it has always been worth it to her.
“A lot of practice goes into archery. As a beginner, you can only come to the classes, and at that time, classes were only on Sundays. Then based on the lockdown, they had to move Sunday classes to Saturday. So, Saturdays became the day that I went to shoot before going to work. I was there shooting for a while before getting to go to the weekly ones. At one point, I was there almost every day of the week,” she shared of how she had been able to get really good at the game.
She had competed in two competitions before and had come out victorious. The club had planned to go compete in the Dominican Republic and Chile, but by then, Kow found out she was pregnant and opted not to participate in the overseas competition. Nevertheless, she made it a point of her duty not to miss the local tournaments.
“The least I could do was compete locally. I did not get to put in anywhere close to my normal shooting hours or practice because it was a little rough physically. You know, swollen feet; my fingers were swollen after a couple of hours of the shoot. My shoulders would get sore quicker, all of that, so I again was not fully prepared mentally, physically, much less thinking I could win,” Kow expressed.
But sure enough, with confidence, some physical discomfort, and a whole lot of know-how, she emerged victorious. Based on this experience, she believes other women can be fearless no matter what.
“Be prepared to laugh at yourself. Just breathe. I have a lot of people who are so in their heads that they forget to breathe. Get out of your head. Don’t overthink,” she said.
Kow, who is also a tattoo artist of eight years, has since welcomed her baby girl into the world and is completely excited about motherhood.
