GLEN Hardman has achieved the finest result of his career by winning the gold medal at the World Field Archery Cham-pionships.

The 37-year-old from Norton, near Worcester, fired his way to the top honour in the male bowhunter compound category at the event in the Namib-ian capital of Windhoek.

Hardman held off the challenge of three other archers from New Zealand, Germany and the US to land the top prize after five days of competition. Archers were faced with five different courses, spending a day on each and shooting four arrows at 28 targets on each course.

Hardman, one of 300 archers at the tournament, has already won titles at national and European level and was delighted to add the sport's highest award to his collection.

He said: "I have won eight European titles, 10 national titles and bronze in the worlds, but never a gold. It's the pinnacle of the sport.

"There's no better award than being a world champion in your sport."

Hardman, a member of March Hare Archers based at Throckmorton, has been in the sport for 22 years after first being introduced to field archery through his father's printing firm.

He said: "My dad used to have a business printing T-shirts and he was asked to print T-shirts for a European tournament in 85/86.

"That was our holiday for the year and I watched everybody shooting and decided I wanted to give it a go, so I bought a bow and off I went, with some training and some coaching."

Hardman and clubmate Steve Pridmore were also both part of the victorious England squad in Namibia that won the team gold medal, beating the US for the first time.