WINNIPEG, MB – For the first outdoor national competition since before the COVID-19 pandemic, 47 archers arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba at the Canadian Mennonite University for the Canada Cup West. It was a weekend packed full of archery, with some excellent scores and riveting match play. 

The weekend started on Friday afternoon with an optional 720 round. 26 archers participated, with archers of three different bow types (barebow, compound, recurve) and many different ages. Austin Taylor had the highest score by far, with a total of 714 points out of the 720 available. Participants also included athletes who just competed in the Youth and Masters Pan Am Championships. Lloyd Polack won a bronze medal in the 50+ men’s barebow category in Halifax, while Chyler Sanders brought home two bronze medals. They were both at the optional 720 round.

The official competition started on Saturday morning, with the 720 qualification round. All 47 archers stepped up to the shooting line, and as the sun came out by the end of the morning, the 720 round finished up. The qualification rounds then determined the makeup of the tournament brackets. Due to the limited number of participants, there were five brackets: men’s compound (all ages), women’s compound (all ages), men’s recurve (all ages), women’s recurve (all ages), and barebow (all ages and genders). 

Saturday afternoon kicked off with a couple of match rounds in the men’s compound field, as there was such a large roster that it had to include extra rounds. After those two rounds, a mixed team event was rolled out. This portion of the event included a demonstration of the mixed team format from two athletes, followed by bracket match play all the way through to medals.

Sunday followed a traditional match play bracket for all divisions. While a lightning warning did delay the schedule by about half an hour, the competition was able to resume after lunch and saw many tight matches. A couple of matches were determined by single-arrow shoot-offs and due to the double elimination format of the competition, two of the gold medals were awarded based on two final matches, as opposed to the regular single final. 

“It was fantastic to have a national event hosted again in Manitoba,” says Ryan Van Berkel, Executive Director of Archery Manitoba. “Our volunteers and organizers worked extremely hard to ensure we had a great event. We were encouraged to see an outstanding group of archers make the trip to compete. We are already looking ahead to 2024, to ensure we enhance the event.”

The next events on the national summer docket are: 

• Canada Cup East (Quebec City, QC): June 24-26, 2022
• Outdoor 3D, field, target championships (PE): July 15-25, 2022

To see results of this competition, click here: http://archerymanitoba.ca/events2/canadacupwest/

This event was made possible thanks to support from the Government of Canada.

For more information, please contact: 

Zoe Meil, Communications & Safe Sport Coordinator

zmeil@archerycanada.ca

(613) 260-2113 ext. 3

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