Rott - She collects medals and certificates like other beer coasters or postage stamps: Silvia Barckholt (52) from Rott, newly crowned world and European champion in 3D archery. After more than six dozen trophies, she stopped counting. Since she started this sport in 2002 and has become more and more successful, stepping onto the winners' podium has almost become a routine. The glamorous highlight of her sports career is the current double victory at the World and European Championships in Szekszárd, Hungary, on a particularly difficult course.
3D is a demanding and exhausting type of shooting sport with a bow and arrow. Because here the target is not discs, but three-dimensional and life-size animal figures made of plastic. Like a real hunt, they are more or less hidden on a forest, field and meadow course. Similar to a scavenger hunt, the shooters first have to spy out an ibex, hare or pheasant and then shoot from a predetermined point. Three scoring zones called “kills” are carved into the animal dummies, but not marked in color. A hit in the innermost ring is worth 11 points, in the next ring 10 and in the outermost ring 8 points. Whoever has achieved the most points at the end of the several-hour course is the winner.
Silvia Barckholt was the best in Hungary and thus a double winner. Because of the corona pandemic, this time the world and European championships were merged. For this, the course for the three-day “fake hunt” was laid out particularly difficult. Barckholt: “We had to march across the Puszta for six to eight hours every day in the sweltering heat. Compared to normal competitions, the targets were then set up at a very great distance of up to 45 meters. ”Often, she was only able to shoot suspiciously with good luck, as the“ kills ”were barely recognizable or not at all. She has to pull around 30 kilograms when drawing the bow so that the arrow leaves the bowstring towards the target at a speed of up to 350 kilometers per hour.
3D shooting is therefore a highly athletic sport that requires constant strength training.
Silvia Barckholt has her own fitness room in her house in Rotterdam and a special pool in the garden, in which she struggles against the current with a strict rubber band.
And of course it has its own practice course with plastic animals and targets for "warm shooting" with a view of the Zugspitze.
Your sport is a really expensive hobby, with the bow being the smallest item at around 1,500 euros.
The athletes have to pay for the trips to qualifications and competitions out of their own pocket.
Barckholt and her husband Jan, who shares the hobby with her, cover more than 18,000 kilometers a year with their motorhome.
Silvia earns the money for this by selling air purification systems.
The Tyrolean and Rotterdam by choice is a "late caller" in archery. As a teenager she did judo up to the black belt, then switched to downhill skiing and landed in the national team as the Austrian national and national junior champion. In addition, she studied veterinary medicine in Vienna and Munich up to the first state examination. Here she discovered her love for horses and became a show jumper. After a riding accident, this episode came to an end and she trained as a horse hostess. She also worked as a fitness trainer at VfL Kaufering, where she met and fell in love with her husband. She came to archery through him in 2002. In 2008 Silvia Barckholt was a founding member of the “Landsberger Archers”. The world and European championship title is the temporary high point of her career, which she does not want to end for a long time.
The mother of two and grandma are happy to pass on their know-how. As a freelance teacher, she trains youngsters for this extraordinary sport in physical education at the Montessori and Waldorf schools in the district. And at the Olympic shooting range in Munich-Hochbrück, Silvia Barckholt trains trainers for shooting sports.
