The South East archery team hit their mark at the Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games earlier this week.
The nine-member Team South East, including coaches Monai Wanner and Sherman Brown, captured 13 medals in the July 25-27 Canadian 900 style outdoor competition at the Estevan Archery Club. Double medal winners at the Games included Wanner and Brown for their role as coaches along with athletes Jaelyn Carlisle and Hunter Chipley.
“My expectation was I’m going for gold and I came out with gold,” said Hunter, 14, who captured a gold medal in the recurve individual male event and in the male team competition, which involves a compound and a recurve athlete competing as a group.
Jaelyn, 17, said her gold medal in the female team event and silver medal in the recurve individual competition came down to practising twice a week for the past two years at the Estevan Archery Club as well as switching from compound to recurve archery. Hunter also made the switch in order to make it into the Games, taking up recurve archery only five weeks ago.
Compound archery is done with a bow that has cams letting off poundage on the ends making it easier for a person to draw it back. Recurve archery uses a bare bow with basically just a string and sights.
“If your form is all good and you understand everything about it it’s basically no different,” said Hunter. “It just made (for) some different changes, but everything is pretty much the same.”
Jaelyn and Hunter were joined on the podium by fellow Team South East athletes Matthew Brown, who won a gold medal as part of the male team, Brandon Muir, a bronze medal winner in the recurve individual male event, Mikayla Young, who earned a gold medal for her part with the female team, Matthew Taylor, a gold medal winner in the compound individual male competition and Joanna Taylor who captured a gold medal in the recurve individual female event.
Wanner said 26 athletes competed for the two-male and two-female spots on Team South East at a two-day compound and recurve Canadian 900 rounds of 25, 35 and 45 metre distance tryout at the Estevan Archery Club in late May. She said they were able to add extra athletes to their roster courtesy of a Games’ fill policy where one zone can add more kids to their team if another zone fails to fill out a full roster.
Wanner said Mikayla, Jaelyn and Hunter have been practising for the Games at the Estevan Archery Club since the tryout, while Glen Ewen residents Matthew Taylor, Brandon and Joanna have been attending practices in Carnduff with Sherman Brown. She said Matthew Brown, who is a Milestone native, came to Estevan to practise when they had the full group at the club, but otherwise practised on his own at his family’s farm.
“The kids are amazing,” said Wanner. “Anything they accomplished, as long as they had a good experience I think it was a bonus.”
