Ava Li takes aim at a recent competition.

When Ava Li was 9 years old, her father gave her a bow for Christmas. It was an unusual gift, and Li said she was surprised but intrigued by the item. She decided she wanted to give archery a try, and she immediately fell in love with the sport.

“The first time I tried it, I really liked it,” Li said. “It was a decision, but I seemed to really like it, and I wanted to keep going and get into it more.”

Her pursuits have earned her numerous accolades, including a first-place finish at a national field archery competition this past summer in South Dakota.

“I love it,” said Li, now 12. “What I love the most about it is the people I meet and the tournaments I can go to in different places and different states. It’s really fun.”

The Hopkinton resident has taken part in competitions all over the region and as far away as New Mexico. The format for the different competitions varies. Some are indoors, others take place outside.

In the tournament Li won in South Dakota, she said the competition took place on a large trail.

“You would walk the trail and there were different places where you could stop and shoot,” Li said. “So we went in order, and the targets were different lengths. Some are at 20 yards, some at 30 yards, some at 40. There were a lot of people there, and it was very fun.”

In her few years of competing in archery, Li said she has learned a lot about the sport and its nuances. Some bows have sights to assist with aiming, while others are best aimed by using the tip of the arrow. Li said she uses a technique called stringwalking, where the archer anchors the arrow in one spot and adjusts their position on the string of the bow in order to make the arrow go higher or lower.

In addition to her win this past August, Li finished tied for third place in the New Mexico competition and scored a fifth-place finish during her first indoor national competition last February.

One long-term goal she has for both indoor and outdoor archery is to earn her gold pin. The pins correspond to scores achieved during competition. Li had already captured her bronze and silver pins for outdoor archery and has a yellow pin, which precedes bronze, for indoor.

In addition to archery, Li keeps herself busy with musical pursuits, playing both the violin and the piano. She said she wants to continue competing in archery.

“There are more tournaments I can go to,” she said. “I can meet many new people and make new friends.”