Yecheon, KOR – The Canadian Recurve Men’s Team, consisting of Eric Peters (Kitchener, ON), Reece Wilson-Poyton (St. Catherines, ON) and Brandon Xuereb (Montreal, QC) have earned Canada’s highest ever World Cup team finish, and first ever World Cup Medal for the Canadian Team, by bringing home the Bronze medal at the second stage of the 2024 Hyundai World Cup series in Korea.
Having qualified in 15th, the Canadian Team first met Team Australia in the first round, dropping only one set to their Australian opponents, to win the match 6-2. They moved on to face the 2nd overall seed of Team India, who were the Gold Team Medalists at the first World Cup stage in Shanghai in April.
The Canadian team started off a little shaky, but their confidence held, and they fought back to win the match 5-3, coming back from an initial deficit after the first round. The Canadian team then advanced to meet the team of the Netherlands, the former team of our National Team Advisor, Ron Van der Hoff. The momentum held for the Canadian team to win that match in straight sets, with a final score of 6-0
The team’s momentum didn’t hold in the Semi-Finals, as they faced off against the German team. Having exchanged the first two sets between them, the German team pulled ahead to take the win with a final score of 6-2.
That result put Canada fighting for the Bronze Medal match. The Canadian team knew they were being labeled the underdogs, and used that mentality to keep the momentum going. “We knew we were the underdogs, our mental performance consultant (Joe Leszner) told us that’s the attitude we had to have,” said Wilson-Poyton. “We had nothing to lose, went all in for every arrow and didn’t look back.”
That mentality carried the Canadian team to a 6-2 victory over the Italian team, securing them the Bronze medal, and earning them the highest ever finish a Canadian Recurve team has ever achieved at a World Cup event.
The Canadian team is back in action tomorrow, in mixed team matches, with Eric Peters and Virginie Chenier of Montreal, QC, teaming up to face Vietnam in the first match.
Schedule:
Friday May 24th – Mixed Team Eliminations
Saturday May 25th – Compound Finals
Sunday May 26th – Recurve Finals
– 30 –
For full results from the event, please click here.
For more information, please contact:
Karl Balisch
Executive Director
Archery Canada
kbalisch@archerycanada.com