Over six hundred youth including students from Atlantic, will be competing in the archery competition of the 2014 Winter Iowa Games powered by the Iowa Food & Family Project. Partnering with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the event will take place Saturday, Feb. 8th, at Johnston High School. Archers will begin their first flight at 9:00 a.m. and continue shooting throughout the day. Students will compete both on the individual and team level. Teams from Atlantic, Central Decatur, Mount Ayr, Spencer and central Iowa will be participating.

The National Archery in the Schools Program in Iowa is coordinated through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Currently there are nearly 200 Iowa schools participating in the program. The Iowa Games added the archery competition to the docket of sports in 2011 and the event continues to grow. In 2011, the event was held in Central City and had 67 participants. This year with a total of 617 archers from 21 schools, the event will break the previous record set in 2013 by more than 150 participants.

Among the schools competing at the event is the Atlantic High School/Middle School, Diagonal, Fremont Elementary, and Mount Ayr Community School.  The 2014 Games will look to set a new participation record with over 4,300 athletes to compete in the annual winter sports festival. The 2014 Games kicked off in late January and will continue through February. Over the course of four weekends, the Winter Iowa Games will hold competitions for 23 sports in 15 different communities.