OTTAWA (Archery Canada) – The Canadian archery team will send seven athletes, including a full recurve contingent, to this summer’s Pan American Games following a successful showing at the World Ranking Event held from April 2-6 in Santiago, Chile.

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Results (World Ranking Event & Pan Am Games Qualifier): results

The 2019 Pan Am Games are set to run from July 26 to August 11 in Lima, Peru. While recurve has been part of the program since 1979, compound will make its PAG debut this summer.

Having already secured three spots last August at the primary qualification tournament in Colombia – two in recurve and one in compound – Canada clinched four more in recurve this past week, putting Canadians in line to compete for six medals in Lima: women’s and men’s individual recurve, women’s, men’s and mixed team recurve, as well as women’s individual compound. 

“Last August at the Pan Am Championships, we missed our prioritized opportunity to qualify full teams. So, we came to Santiago with the very focused objective of qualifying both recurve teams for Lima, and were able achieved this,” said Alan Brahmst, Archery Canada’s high performance director. “It is notable that while all other competing nations have been shooting outdoor all winter, we were the only team coming directly from an indoor environment.

“Our three podium finishes at this world ranking event are an added bonus to keep building confidence and kick off our very busy, important 2019 season.”

Canada was outstanding in team competition in Santiago, capturing gold medals in the men’s and mixed events and adding bronze in women’s. All three Canadian teams were seeded first after their qualification rounds.

Canada defeated Brazil 6-2 in the men’s final, took down Chile 5-3 in the mixed championship match, and edged Puerto Rico 5-4 in the women’s bronze-medal duel after being upset by fifth-seeded Guatemala in the semifinal round.

In women’s individual competition, Tania Edwards of Aurora, Ont., was the top Canadian with a sixth-place finish, followed by Mariessa Pinto of Abbotsford, B.C., in seventh place, Virginie Chénier of Laval, Que., in ninth, and Stephanie Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., who ended up 17^th in her first-ever international event.

After qualifying 18^th among 35 competitors, Edwards advanced all the way to the quarter-finals thanks to a pair of impressive 6-2 victories. Her surprise run ended with a 2-6 loss to Chile’s Constanza Elier Dabner in the quarters.

Pinto, who was fourth after the qualifying round, also notched a pair of wins en route to the round of eight, where she dropped a 0-6 decision to eventual bronze medallist Maydenia Sarduy of Cuba.

On the men’s side, three-time Olympian Crispin Duenas of Scarborough, Ont., was the top Canuck with a fifth position, after qualifying second in a group of 44 contestants. Eric Peters of Ottawa finished eighth, Brian Maxwell of Vancouver and Conner Sorley of Saskatoon tied for ninth, while Aaron Cox of Devon, Alta., placed 17^th.

Peters and Cox were both competing with the senior national team for the first time.

Duenas and Peters – who was seeded eighth going into the ranking stage – both had a first-round bye and then won a pair of matches on their way to the quarter-finals, where they lost to the eventual silver and gold medallists, respectively. Duenas was stopped by Puerto Rico’s Ricardo Soto, who prevailed 6-4, while Peters lost 2-6 against top-seeded Marcus D’Almeida of Brazil, who went on to dominate Soto 7-1 in the final.

At the last Pan American Games, in 2015 in Toronto, Jason Lyon of Winnipeg claimed Canada’s lone archery medal thanks to his bronze-medal performance in men’s individual recurve.

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Archery Canada is the National Sport Organization responsible for the promotion and development of the timeless sport of archery in a safe and ethical manner. Archery Canada supports the achievement of high performance excellence in archery in all categories and the development of a national archery infrastructure to promote archery participation across Canada in cooperation with the Provincial/Territorial Archery Associations.

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