Quiet and unassuming in school, senior Nicole Turina, nevertheless, is a world-class archer. Turina stands 17th in international archery rankings according to USA Archery.

Turina began archery at the end of her freshman year, practicing at the Everything Archery store in Kalihi with the Junior Olympic Archery Development. The Kalihi store is the only location on the island where participants can practice archery.

Turina practices four times a week, typically three to four hours a session. During the summer, she trains five times a week with sessions spanning five and a half hours. She also volunteers as an instructor, helping the club’s younger participants.

The two archery associations are the National Field Archery Association (NFAA) and USA Archery. Turina’s ranking comes from USA Archery while her state championships are administered by the NFAA.

Competing at local and mainland tournaments, Turina has taken first place on several occasions, most recently at the 810 Round Out at Waipio. She is ranked 17th in Junior Olympics with USA Archery.

Turina traveled to Ohio to compete in the Junior Olympic Archery Development nationals this past July and established her international ranking of 17th there.

“I chose archery because it sounded fun. I needed a sport after I quit ballet. There isn’t really a scintillating back story to it. I never did well with team sports like soccer and basketball, and I had played those from when I was six to 10. I hated running, and I was terribly uncoordinated because I grew very quickly. I had tried fencing for a while, but I didn’t quite like it either. So, maybe trying a slower sport was the trick,” said Turina.

Since archery is not an ILH sport, Turina practices archery as a club sport with seniors Linsey Kim and Angela Zheng.

Before beginning archery, Turina had studied ballet for 13 years. After quitting dance, she chose a new activity, archery.

“I chose archery over other sports because I hate running,” said Turina.

Turina hopes to compete in the 2020 Olympic games and will begin her formal training in college with a world-class coach.

“Denise Parker was only 14 when she went to the Olympic games in Seoul. That was really inspiring because she was so young,” said Turina.

Alexander Kirillov, the current Venezuelan Olympic coach and former U.S. Olympic coach, has agreed to train Turina when she attends the University of Arizona in Tucson next year.

“As of this past year, the teenagers he trains are at the top of our age group. When I start my training with him, I know that it will include shooting over 300 arrows a day as well as conditioning outside of practice,” said Turina.

Kirillov works for an archery company, Precision Shooting Equipment, and Turina met him at mainland tournaments. She has worked with him twice before.