OTTAWA (Archery Canada) – Led by Jordan Adachi and Virginie Chénier’s gold-medal performances, Team Canada racked up an impressive 10 podium finishes in Medellin, Colombia, where the top archers from the Americas battled it out in a trio of prestigious events from August 14 to 19.

Results (Pan American & Para Pan American Championships): Results

Results (Pan American Games Primary Qualification Tournament): Results

Competing simultaneously in the 2018 Pan American and Para Pan American Championships as well as the primary qualification tournament for the 2019 Pan Am Games, the Canadian delegation brought home two gold, three silver and five bronze medals.

Adachi, who hails from Cranbrook, B.C., triumphed in men’s junior compound to highlight a four-medal Pan Am Championship effort. The 20-year-old was joined on the podium by Crispin Duenas of Scarborough, Ont., who captured silver in men’s recurve, as well as Aaron Cox of Devon, Alta., and Benjamen Lee of Kitchener, Ont., who merited bronze in men’s junior and cadet recurve, respectively.

In para-archery, Paralympians Karen Van Nest of South Bruce Peninsula, Ont., and Kevin Evans of Jaffray, B.C., teamed up to win Pan Am silver in the compound mixed team open competition, with Van Nest also adding individual bronze in women’s compound open.

Meanwhile, four members of the red and white contingent reached the podium at the 2019 Pan Am Games qualification tourney and, in the process, secured three berths for Canada into the quadrennial event set for next summer in Lima, Peru (July 26 – Aug. 11).  

On the women’s side, Chénier, a 23-year-old from Laval, Que., booked one spot for Canada thanks to her gold medal in recurve, while Bryanne Lameg of Winnipeg did the same by taking bronze in compound.  

In men’s competition, the performances of Duenas (silver) and Vancouver’s Brian Maxwell (bronze) in recurve also punched a single Canadian ticket for Lima.

Pan Am Championships

Adachi continued his hot streak on the international stage, 10 months after claiming silver in men’s junior compound at the 2017 World Youth Championships in Argentina.

After taking second place in the qualification round with a score of 679, the Canuck defeated third-seeded Alejandro Zapata of Colombia 142-137 in the semifinals before edging top-seeded Felipe Gomez Zuluaga, also of the host country, by 113-112 in the title match.

Duenas was solid from start to finish on his way to men’s recurve silver. After finishing second in the qualification stage (676), the three-time Olympian registered four head-to-head wins, including a 6-0 blanking of Mexico’s third seed Antonio Alvarez Murillo in the semifinals, before bowing out against another Mexican opponent, eighth-seeded Ernesto Boardman, 4-6 in the final.

It was Duenas’ fourth career medal at the Pan Am Championships, adding to individual bronze in 2010 and team silver in both 2006 and 2010.

Cox won men’s junior recurve bronze thanks to a 7-3 victory over Jackson Mirich of the United States in the third-place contest, while Lee matched his compatriot’s feat with a 7-1 domination of Trinidad and Tobago’s Mahabir Rahul Dravid in men’s cadet recurve.

Other individual top-8 performances for Canada included Chénier in women’s recurve (6th), Marie-Ève Gélinas of Trois-Rivières, Que., in women’s cadet recurve (6th), Ryli Vallière of London, Ont., in women’s cadet recurve (7th) and Rémi Gervais of Montreal in men’s junior recurve (8th).

Para Pan Am Championships

In Para Pan Am Championship action, Van Nest, a multiple Paralympian who was born in North Bay, Ont., topped the qualification round in women’s compound open with a score of 664. After suffering a heart-breaking 131-132 loss to fifth-seeded Liliana Montiel of Mexico in the semifinals, she rebounded nicely with a convincing 140-130 bronze-medal win over USA’s third seed Teresa Wallace.

Van Nest and Evans then teamed up to claim silver in compound mixed team open. The Canadians downed Mexico 142-136 in the semis before dropping the final to second-seeded Brazil by a 140-151 score.

Evans, a three-time Paralympian and two-time world champion who originally hails from Calgary, also posted an individual top-8 result in men’s compound (6th).

Pan Am Games Primary Qualification Tournament

Chénier’s path to the top of the women’s recurve podium of the Pan Am Games qualifying tourney was nothing short of impressive.  

After placing third in the preliminary stage with a score of 616 and earning a first-round bye in the process, she beat Guatemala’s Yesenia Valencia 6-4 in the second ranking round, downed fellow Canadian Tania Edwards of Aurora, Ont., 6-5 in a quarter-final match that required a shoot-off, upset second-seeded Elizabeth Rodriguez of Cuba 7-3 in the semifinals, before dominating fourth-seeded Florencia Leithold of Argentina 6-0 in the gold-medal duel.

Duenas, Lameg and Maxwell all came just short of equaling Chénier’s gold-medal performance.

In men’s recurve, Duenas qualified first with a score of 676, followed that up with three straight wins, including a 7-1 defeat of Maxwell in an all-Canadian semifinal, before dropping the final against second-seeded Marcus D’Almeida of Brazil by a 4-6 score.

Maxwell rebounded nicely from the loss to his teammate with a 6-4 bronze-medal victory over third-seeded Oscar Ticas of El Salvador.

For her part, en route to women’s compound bronze, Lameg placed second in the qualification round (672), beat compatriot Van Nest 144-140 in the quarters, was defeated 136-141 by Guatemala’s Maria Jose Zebadua in the semis, before rebounding with a 147-135 domination of fourth-seeded Andrea Orellana of El Salvador in the third-place duel.

Other individual top-8 results for Canada in the Pan Am Games qualifier included Connor Sorley of Saskatoon in men’s recurve (5th), Edwards in women’s recurve (5th) and Van Nest in women’s compound (6th).