The Guilsfield girl with an Olympic dream!

Reading the books and watching the blockbuster film series, The Hunger Games, set the wheels in motion for a Guilsfield teenager to pursue a dream of reaching the Olympic Games, and after an incredible three years she is right on track!

Fflur Mai Thomas is a former pupil of Guilsfield Primary School and Welshpool High School and is currently studying her A-levels at Shrewsbury College.

But she is splitting her time between the classroom and pursuing a career as an elite athlete after throwing herself into a sport that was inspired by the hit franchise.

Fflur decided to try a couple of archery taster days back in the Summer of 2022 at what is now her local club Hafren Foresters.

Having been told she had something, she was asked if she would like to do a Beginners Course and from that, joined the club. That was just over three years ago and things have moved on very quickly.

Having gone from a ‘newbie’, Fflur has become a Shropshire Indoor and Outdoor Junior Women Champion, shot for Wales in the Junior Indoor Championships at Stoneleigh twice and has represented Shropshire and the West Midlands.

To add, she has gained many Welsh records and recently won four National medals - a mixed team bronze and team gold for Wales in the Summer’s Youth Fest competition, a bronze in the Junior Archery Series at Wallingford and most recently a silver in the National Junior Indoor Championships in December last year.

Throughout her three years of archery, Fflur has met all her goals and among them last year was to be selected to become part of the National Age Group Academy - a first step onto the Olympic Pathway with Archery GB where she is coached by Lloyd Brown.

She had an incredible outdoor season in 2025, including balancing her GCSEs alongside her training. She is now studying her A levels and continues to train alongside her studies at her local club and at the Performance Archery Centre in Lilleshall.

Fflur is currently ranked 8th in the UK for the U18 Junior Women for Recurve.

What’s the huge dream?  For Fflur it’s simply this, to get to the Olympics and win! 

She said: “I have always loved sport but archery just clicks with me. It helps to give me focus, patience to trust in the process and I feel it is a sport that is very underrated, needs more publicity and funding.

It takes a lot of time and commitment to train and compete travelling the country but Fflur said “one thing that makes this easier is the friends I have made all over the UK”.

“The friendships I have made make competitions and training fun and sociable but it is all about me and my bow when I get on that shooting line,” she said.

To help promote the sport, Fflur maintains her own Instagram, TikTok and Facebook accounts not only to promote her own progress but to raise the profile of the sport as she has many non-Archery followers and supporters.

Fflur is currently sponsored by Wales Archery Specialists based in Caldicot in Monmouthshire.