Archery Canada

Canada’s Benjamen Lee places 17^th at 2018 Youth Olympic Games

October 31, 2018

OTTAWA (Archery Canada) – Benjamen Lee of Kitchener, Ont., the lone Canadian entry in archery at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games, placed 17^th in both men’s recurve individual and mixed international team at the quadrennial event held from October in 6-18 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Buenos Aires 2018 Website: www.buenosaires2018.com

Buenos Aires 2018 Archery Results: RESULTS

Lee was one of 64 archers – 32 boys and 32 girls – from 44 countries selected for the third edition of the Summer YOG, which had previously been held in Singapore (2010) and Nanjing, China (2014). To be eligible for Buenos Aires 2018, participants had to be born after Jan. 1^st, 2001.

In individual competition, the 16-year-old who attends Kitchener Collegiate Institute settled for 28^th place in the qualification round after shooting a 636. The result set up a challenging matchup against fifth-seeded Akash Malik of India in the opening ranking round.

Despite his underdog status, the Canadian gave his rival all he could handle and even took an early lead before falling 6-5 in a tie-break. Both archers shot 9s in the extra session but Malik’s arrow was closer to the center.

Malik went on to capture silver behind Trenton Cowles of the USA, with Belgium’s Senna Roos rounding out the podium.

In the mixed tournament, athletes from different nations were paired and competed in the standard mixed team format.

Lee and Rongjia Chang of Chinese Taipei were seeded 22^nd for the ranking round after posting a combined qualifying score of 1,298. Unfortunately, the duo couldn’t do much in their first ranking match against Spain’s Jose Manuel Solera and France’s Kyla Touraine-Helias, dropping a 6-0 decision to the eventual champions.

Argentina’s Agustina Sofia Giannasio and Thailand’s Aitthiwat Soithong claimed silver, while individual men’s champion Trenton Cowles of the USA teamed up with Namibia’s Quinn Reddig to complete the mixed podium.

“The experience in Buenos Aires gave me the opportunity to shoot matches in front of many spectators,” said Lee, who had booked his ticket for the YOG thanks to a silver medal at the American Continental Qualifier held last May in Guatemala City. “Unlike the world youth championships last year in Rosario, also in Argentina, where there were multiple matches going on at the same time, at the Youth Olympics, it was one match at a time. They ran as if it was a gold-medal match from a World Cup or world championship. Also, shooting at the Youth Olympics allowed me to experience shooting under higher pressure.” 

Archery Canada national recurve coach Shawn Riggs, who accompanied Lee in Buenos Aires, was pleased with his athlete’s showing and with the overall competition.

“Ben’s performance was on par with his season averages, which is an accomplishment for a young athlete at a major Games. Despite his loss in the opening ranking round, he had one of the higher arrow averages of the day,” said Riggs. “This experience will certainly be of significant benefit to him as he develops into a serious competitor. The winds were challenging throughout the competition, and Ben managed them well.

“This was a really well-run competition and the organizers should be commended for doing a fabulous job.”

Thanks to Lee’s participation, Canada was represented in archery for the third straight Youth Olympics. Toronto’s Timon Park competed in 2010 and Ottawa’s Eric Peters in 2014, with the latter returning from China with a mixed team bronze medal earned alongside Finland’s Mirjam Tuokkola.

NOTES: A total of 3,397 athletes from 206 countries participated in 32 sports in Buenos Aires… Canada sent 72 competitors and returned home with nine medals, including three silvers and six bronzes… The fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2022.

About Archery Canada

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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