The Southland para archer set records at the New Zealand Field Archery Association indoor championships recently.
The competition was held at four venues in the Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Wellington regions.
Ayto took part at Franklin County Archers in Auckland.
He won a gold medal in the veteran men’s freestyle limited compound division, and to top it off broke two national records — the inaugural NZFAA short flint round and International Field Archery Association standard indoor round.
He felt humbled and honoured to receive the accolades, he said.
"It was quite neat to say that I had won a gold medal.
"It was my first national records and my first gold medal, so it was the first time I had achieved something at that level."
He competes seated, as he has a rare form of muscular dystrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, and hopes to make archery more accessible to people with physical disabilities.
"They always say archery is 10% physical and 90% mental, so it’s mostly a mental game.
"In archery, there is no book somebody has to fit into. It doesn’t matter how a person is shaped or the way they function — anyone can fit archery into their life."
He remembered falling in love with archery in 1989 after a friend told him to try it out.
At the time, it was the ideal sport for him, as his walking was restricted and it only required upper body strength, he said.
"So I went on Sunday and never looked back — I was hooked."
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a condition affecting the nerves that send information from the brain to and from the rest of the body.
As the head coach for the Deep South Archery Club, Ayto taught people who had a range of disabilities, which included visual and physical impairments.
"People do not get fitted into archery — it is the other way around. So we find equipment which fits into people’s weight, their ability, their size — so it is a good sport in that sense."
Archers could choose and customize their goals in the sport, he said.
"When I teach archery I focus on consistency and often focus on safety and repetition, rather than form and style."
