OTTAWA, ON – With the conclusion of the 2022 calendar year, Archery Canada is taking the opportunity to reflect on a year of exciting archery, both on and off the range. 

Following two years of pandemic related impacts, our national events returned with a bang this year. We presented the Regional Indoor Championships for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, a national competition in which archers are able to shoot against one another from the comfort of their own club. More than 500 archers competed from many different provinces and in all disciplines. Due to COVID restrictions, the 3D Indoor Championships had to be moved from Cape Breton, where they were originally scheduled to be held, to Lac La Biche. Lakeland Archers and Rene Schaub stepped up and organized a successful event with minimal preparation time. This event saw 140 archers, mostly from Western provinces where 3D archery is very popular, descended on the northern Alberta town to shoot in the first national in-person event since the pandemic started in March 2020. In June, Winnipeg welcomed nearly 50 archers for the Canada Cup West, and two weeks later, Quebec City hosted over 60 archers for the first-ever edition of the Canada Cup East. The national domestic events calendar culminated in the Canadian Outdoor Championships, split between Covehead and Charlottetown, PEI. Almost 100 archers competed in the 3D event, 53 archers shot in the field competition, and nearly 150 competitors ended the week with the target competition. This marked the first time that Canadian Championships have come to PEI and sets the stage for the upcoming Canada Winter Games in February 2023. 

Archery Canada grew their program expertise by creating leadership pools for compound and para, providing new technical leadership. These pools are filled by individuals with a great deal of experience in the respective disciplines as well as the desire to contribute to strong and well-rounded high performance programs. The individuals serve in coach & team manager positions to National Team events (regional/domestic/international), serve as program technical advisors, and lead regional development opportunities, working closely with our Program Manager, Kylah Cawley and Compound Coordinator, Ryan Van Berkel.  The organization looks forward to seeing the meaningful change and impact that these technical pools bring to the sport over the next couple of years.

Internationally, Canadian archers had a very successful year in competition. Halifax played host to the first Canadian hosted international target competition since 1997 (not including Pan American Games), ending a 25-year drought. They welcomed 11 countries from all over the Americas in the youth and masters categories. Athletes from our national squads represented Canada at three World Cup stages, two World Championships (field & 3D), and the World Games. At the fourth World Cup stage of this year in Medellin, Devaang Gupta stepped up to the shooting line for the first time on such a stage, upsetting 12th-ranked Korean Woo Seok Lee in a very tight match (6-5) to advance to the 1/16 elimination round. In every World Cup stage that our national athletes attended this year, Canada was able to enter at least one male and one female in the recurve categories. In the third stage, Canada also had a representative in the compound men’s category with Cory Smandych. William “Alex” Melnik brought home a silver medal from the World Archery 3D Championships, and Dustin Watson won the gold medal and the World Champion title at the World Archery Field Championships. Christopher Perkins represented Canada at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham (US) and shot strongly to secure a bronze medal in the compound individual men’s event. National athletes also competed in the Pan & Parapan Am Championships and were looking to earn quotas for the Pan Am Games next year, which will serve as a very important qualifier for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The Pan Am Championships saw Eleanor Brug compete for the first time at an international event, making her way to the bronze medal match to conclude the competition. Canada came away quite successful from the event, with full team quotas in the men’s and women’s recurve categories, as well as the men’s compound event. Canada also received an individual men’s compound open quota in the para event; the organization is incredibly thrilled with the results and spots that the athletes earned in the competition. Archery Canada congratulates all of our national squad athletes who represented our country so well in international competitions this year.

The organization looks forward to a very exciting 2023, which will include the continuation of all national events and the attendance of Canadians at many international events in the lead up to the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, France.

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For more information, please contact:

Zoe Meil, Communications & Safe Sport Coordinator

zmeil@archerycanada.ca

(613) 260-2113 ext. 3