By Sarah Tone, Communications Coordinator
Team Manitoba had great success in the individual match rounds today at the 2023 Canada Winter Games – medalling in all four events.
“I knew that we would have strong competitors, and that our team was fairly strong. I hoped we’d do well, and that everyone would shoot well for themselves. They achieved that,” said head coach Avril Hatherell.
Each of the archers who competed today are on Manitoba’s provincial team. They practice together once a week, working on team events, individual match play, and eliminations to build the skills they need to compete at the national level.
Chyler Sanders (20, Winnipeg) and Ryan Cherniak (19, Winnipeg) compete in compound, and Emily Love (17, Winnipeg) and Ryder Wilson (16, Selkirk) compete in recurve.
In recurve, the archer pulls the string towards their face with their fingers and aims at the target through a sight. The arrow is then released downrange towards the target.
A compound bow is similar to a recurve bow, except that the bowstrings are attached to the limbs through pulleys (also called cams). This allows more accuracy and power from a greater distance.
In a first Games for each of the athletes, each one is bringing home a medal.
“It actually feels amazing to medal. I wasn’t expecting it. I’m mostly focused on my breathing, just trying to calm my heart rate down. Last arrow, super shaky, but it still was a good shot to get me that bronze medal,” said Cherniak.
“I went into my first match, very content. I shot really well this whole week so I thought it would be great, and then it happened really very fast, it didn’t sink in right away. It’s all very surreal,” added Love on her win.
Lots of hard work and dedication goes into making this team. After competing at local events and provincials, there were a few new tricks they tried to make it through this week.
“One thing that stands out to me, is I got my coach to tell me jokes through the whole match, which is new,” said Wilson
“Something we did different leading up to these Games, is we did some mental performance training, which I think was a huge asset. And we also met here at the Games with the mental performance coach, which was really helpful,” said Hatherell.
And when it’s time to wind down, the unofficial sport of the Canada Games is just as popular with these athletes as the rest of Team Manitoba.
“My highlight of the games would probably be trading pins, seeing the different sports, and then just hanging out with everyone from archery, there is such a cool group here,” said Cherniak.
The archers face off in the team event tomorrow, and coach Hatherell is confident in her team’s abilities.
“Together they’re quite strong teams, each discipline is ranked third out of the 10 teams, so I have high hopes that we’re going to continue to do very well.”
