ESTEVAN — Two talented young athletes from Estevan are grateful for the opportunity they had at the recent Canada Winter Games in Charlottetown.
Kaylee Carlson, competing in archery, finished fifth in individual female recurve. She sat sixth with a total score of 979 after the first two rounds.
“Our targets are numbered six through 10, so we shoot three rounds at a time, and we shot 120 arrows,” said Carlson.
Points are based on where the arrows land on a target.
In the preliminary playoff round, she defeated an archer from P.E.I. 7-1 but then lost to a competitor from B.C. 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
“You and an opponent shoot a round of three arrows, and then you total up your score at the end, and whoever gets the highest score gets two points, and then if you tie, you each get one point,” said Carlson.
The first person to six points wins.
The archer from Quebec who won the gold medal was a “phenomenal shooter” who picked up lots of points, Carlson said.
“There were many other great shooters. It was pretty tough,” Carlson said.
In the recurve team mixed competition, she was part of the entry that finished sixth. Saskatchewan had a combined score of 1,923 in the first two rounds and was defeated by Manitoba in the quarter-finals.
Carlson, age 19, has been in archery for 16 years. She hopes to remain involved in the sport, but not at such a competitive level because she is now focused on post-secondary studies. She is also thinking of coaching.
“It was my first event such as this, where it’s people from across the country as opposed to provincials, so definitely with the nerves and stuff, I got to see what it was like to be put under that kind of pressure.”
Sebastian Murphy of Estevan competed in three events in snowboarding at a venue about half an hour outside of the P.E.I. capital.
“I met so many great people, and it’s the best snowboarding I’ve ever done in my life,” said Murphy.
He was 14th in each of big air and male slopestyle. In big air, he sat 16th after the first qualification jump with a score of 38.40. and was ninth in the second qualifier with a score of 48.80. The top 12 competitors advanced.
In slopestyle, he was slotted in heat 1, and had scores of 49.47 and 42.60. His better score was used, and he was 14th after the heats. Once again, he was just short of advancing to the final.
In those two events, Murphy and the other competitors were judged in difficulty and execution.
In snowboard cross, which is a timed event, he was 30th in the qualification round and finished fourth in the first elimination round, so he didn’t advance to the quarter-finals.
“I had never trained in that, and there are people who go there and that’s what they do mainly. But for slopestyle and big air, what I was focusing on, it was definitely the highest level of difficulty I have competed against.”
He faced some really strong athletes from B.C. and Quebec.
Slopestyle is his favourite because he can do rails and jumps all in one run.
Murphy, age 16, has been in snowboarding for eight years. He started competing through his mother and step-father. He started joining them at Mission Ridge Winter Park in Fort Qu’Appelle, made some friends and grew as a snowboarder.
“I have a little park set up in my backyard, because I’m near the valley, so usually I’ll build a little rail and jump back there,” said Murphy.
And he gets the questions from other people about how he is able to compete in snowboarding when he lives in Saskatchewan.
This was his one shot at the Winter Games, as next time he’ll be too old to compete, so he said he’s glad he went and he met a lot of friends at the Winter Games.
“It just opened me up to all of the great people in snowboarding and ways I can take it,” said Murphy, who wants to one day be able to snowboard every day.
