Medellin, COL (April 23, 2024) – Raymond Huang of Richmond, BC began his international competitive career with a bang at the 2024 Pan American Championships which took place from April 9-14 in Medellin, Colombia, winning gold in the men’s barebow competition. Canada also narrowly missed securing an Olympic Games quota spot in men’s team recurve as they took home silver. Virginie Chenier of Laval, QC captured bronze in women’s individual recurve, and then partnered with Eric Peters of Kitchener, ON to take bronze in mixed team recurve.

Huang is no stranger to strong competition, having secured the barebow title at the 2024 Lancaster Archery Classic earlier this year, but this was his first major international competition, and he excelled, winning all of his matches by a score of 7-3 to finally win over Marwin Martinez of Colombia in the gold medal final. Huang will be part of the Canadian 3D team that will attend the 3D World Championships in Mokrice, Slovenia later this year, and will hope to secure his ticket for the 2025 World Games at the 2024 World Archery Field Championships in Lac La Biche, Canada this September.
All eyes were on the men’s team recurve gold medal final on April 14th as the Canadian team of Eric Peters of Kitchener, ON, Crispin Duenas of Scarborough, ON, and Devaang Gupta of Toronto, ON sought to secure another Olympic quota for Canada at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The team put up a valiant effort but unfortunately lost the match 5-4, giving Colombia the gold, and the Olympic quota spot, and themselves the silver medal.

The women’s recurve team of Chenier, Kristine Esebua of York, ON, and Stephanie Barrett of Mississauga, ON also lost to Colombia 5-4, but in the quarterfinals of their competition. The team from the USA won gold.

Chenier and Peters joined forces in the mixed team recurve competition where they advanced to the bronze medal final defeated Argentina 6-0 to win bronze. Brazil took the gold, while Mexico took silver.

Chenier comes home from Colombia with two bronze medals after she also advanced to the bronze medal final in women’s individual recurve where she defeated Ana Paula Vazquez Flores of Mexico 6-4 for the medal. Casey Kaufhold of the USA won gold while Alejandra Valencia of Mexico took silver. Esebua, who was fresh off her gold medal win at the Continental Championships the weekend before, finished the competition in fifth after losing 6-4 to Valencia in the quarterfinals. Barrett didn’t advance beyond the elimination rounds.

In men’s individual recurve, the top result came from Reece Wilson-Poyton of St. Catharines, ON who finished sixth after advancing to the quarterfinals where he lost to Jackson Mirich of the USA 7-1. Peters, Duenas, and Gupta didn’t advance beyond the elimination rounds.

Canada also had two athletes competing in compound archery with Jordan Adachi of Cranbrook, BC and Cameron Palichuk from Sherwood Park, AB both advancing to the round of 1/8 where they were eliminated, finishing the competition ranked 9th.

“The Pan Am Championships were a wonderful event, showcasing the team’s preparation and hunger to obtain the quota spots to compete at the Paris Olympic games,” said Kylah Crawley, High Performance Director for Archery Canada. “There were plenty of highs at this event but there are still plenty of items to reflect on with the team to move forward to the next event, and preparation for the final qualifier in Antalya, Turkey later this year.”

For the results from the Pan American Championships, visit: https://info.ianseo.net/?tourid=688