PUPILS from Tillicoultry and Coalsnaughton Primary School are now national champions following their performances at the second annual National Primary Schools Soft Archery Championships.

The championships took place on Friday, June 7, at Renfrew Leisure Centre.

The local schools who competed included Abercromby, Coalsnaughton, Strathdevon, Muckhart, Banchory, Fishcross, Tillicoultry, Redwell and St. Serf's

Children were chosen from the extra-curricular club sessions to represent their schools at the national event which took play at the Renfrew Leisure Centre.

Schools could enter a team in either the P4-P5 or P6-P7 category and teams were made up of three pupils of either gender.

When the pupils arrived at the event they were split into small groups then all shot six arrows each and their combined 18 arrows gave the team their scores.

Once the group games were over the top four teams with the highest scores in each age group went forward to the medal matches in another group, while the other teams continued to play off for the minor places.

The final medal matches saw each pupil shoot six arrows per game and it was an exciting finish to the day as Clackmannanshire schools claimed both the age group titles for the second year running.

Tillicoultry won the P6-7 category and Coalsnaughton won the P4-5 category.

Meanwhile, Banchory PS also claimed second place in the P6-7 event.

A spokesperson from Clackmannanshire Council praised everyone for their effort and said: "Congratulations to every pupil who represented their school at the event and a huge well done to the new national champions, Tillicoultry and Coalsnaughton Primary Schools."

Since January 2017, the Clackmannanshire Active Schools team have been working in partnership with Scottish Archery to develop the sport with local schools as part of both curricular and extra-curricular sessions.

The sport has proved to be very popular in schools with hundreds of pupils taking part over the past two years.