CHARLOTTETOWN, PE – The Canadian Championships took centre stage at the University of PEI with the target competition. It was a sunny and incredibly warm three days of competition, filled with the Fred Usher Cup, a team competition and the individual qualifications and match play.

The first day of the target event began with the Fred Usher Cup. The 12 registered teams were split up into pools of 3; they shot against each team in their pool once, winning 2 points for a win and none for a loss. Each team registered with a $200 fee, leading to a prize bursary of $2400. 

In Pool A, Team Ontario took first place over Nova Scotia and Yukon, beating both of them in their matches. Pool B brought a bit more action to the field of play, where each team of Manitoba 1, Saskatchewan, and Maxwell, won one match each and so then went into a shoot off. Manitoba 1 won the shoot-off and advanced onto the bracket play. Host province Prince Edward Island were in a pool with British Columbia and Manitoba Team #2; BC left the pool as the top team, moving on. Finally, Alberta won the final pool against New Brunswick and the third team from Manitoba. Based on their scores, Alberta and Manitoba were up against each other, while Ontario and British Columbia faced off. Alberta moved onto the gold medal match, and British Columbia won to become their opponent in the match. The first medal contested in the Fred Usher Cup was bronze between Manitoba and Ontario, with Manitoba coming through the win. The gold medal brought some intense action, with BC and Alberta tying at 159, requiring a shoot off to determine the winner. With BC having already shot their arrows, Alberta needed a 10 from recurve archer Luke Smollett to win the gold. Smollett came through for the team, winning them the Fred Usher Cup. Alberta walked away with the gold medal and $1250, British Columbia the silver and $700, and Manitoba earned the bronze and the remaining prize of $450.

The next morning started with qualifications. Matthew Nofel from the US won the men’s (21+) recurve category over 15 other archers, with Brian Maxwell (BC) shooting the top Canadian score. In the women’s (21+) recurve division, American Molly Nugent took home the top seed, with another British Columbian, Eleanor Brug, taking the second seed and top Canadian spot. Ben Lee won the junior (U21) men’s recurve qualifications, and Natalee Chan took that spot for the junior (U21) women. Spencer Freeze from host province PEI won the recurve cadet (U18) men division, while Audrey Khan Arevalo was the top archer in the cadet (U18) women’s category. Isabella Doucette was the only archer in the recurve cub (U15) women’s division and therefore the winner, while Jujharbir Dhaliwal was in a similar position in the recurve pre-cub (U13) men’s group. Keith Cossey led the recurve master (50+) men archers and Cathy Relf won the women’s division by almost 40 points. 

Switching over to the compound side, Austin Taylor won the compound men’s division. Sachiko Keane (US) took it on the women’s side, with Kaitlyn Horlock as the highest ranked Canadian. Cameron Palichuk and Chyler Sanders each won the junior man and woman category in compound, respectively. Cooper Keane of America won the compound cadet men’s division, Emmett Kapaniuk following up as the top Canadian. Tasjia Boyle won the compound cadet women’s division. Both the compound cub divisions had only one archer each: Tryston Scrivener and Delia Therriault. The compound pre-cub men saw Harkunwar Teja emerge as the #1-ranked archer. Ember Frigon was the only archer in the pre-cub women division, and therefore the victor. In the compound master men division, Tim Watts was the winner and Dawn Groszko won the women’s category. 

In the barebow categories, James Frigon won the men’s category, Brooke Daigle the women’s, Lucas Riches the cub men’s, Sophia elder the cub women’s and George Zimmerman the master men. 

Saturday was the day for bracket competition. First-ranked women’s recurve archer Molly Nugent moved through the bracket until she was defeated by Virginie Chénier of Quebec in the semifinal, who then faced off against Eleanor Brug in the final. Brug walked away with the gold medal, Chenier the silver, and Nugent the bronze. American Matthew Nofel, #1-ranked, moved through the bracket, all the way to winning the final. Brian Maxwell was named the Canadian Champion, with Andrew Azores and Bradley Fulsang completing the list. The recurve U21 men’s category saw lots of decisive matches, with Jacob Gagnon, Luke Smollett, and Benjamen Lee stepping atop the podium. In the recurve U21 women’s category, all the archers had byes in the first round, therefore moving on to face each other in the quarterfinals. 4th-ranked Brianna DeZeeuw won both the quarterfinal and final with a score of 6-4 in five sets to win the gold medal and become the Canadian Champion. In a field of 10 archers, Janna Hawash, gold medalist in the recurve U18 women’s division, won all three matches by no less than 4 set points each time. J. G. Kim, who was ranked 5th in the recurve U18 men’s qualifications, won three matches in a row to receive the gold medal over Kurtis Ng. In a field of only three archers, 3rd ranked Lucie Filion won the semifinals and finals to win the gold medal over Cathy Relf. Daniel O’Driscoll took the title of Canadian Champion in the recurve 50+ men’s division. 

Bryanne Lameg won the gold medal and the title of Canadian Champion in the compound women’s division, entering the bracket as the 7th-ranked archer. Austin Taylor, who won the men’s compound category at Canada Cup West in Winnipeg, came away with the title of Canadian Champion in this competition as well. Provincial teammates Chyler Sanders and Taylor Klimchuk faced off against each other in the compound U21 women’s final, with Sanders winning the medal by 5 points. In the compound U21 men’s event, Cameron Palichuk was ranked 1st in qualifications and remained on the top of the podium in bracket play, winning the gold. Tasjia Boyle dominated her two matches to become the Canadian Champion out of the compound U18 women. The compound U18 men’s competition saw local archer Keegan Crawford emerge victorious at the end. D. Groszko, who recently won the gold medal in her division at the Youth and Masters Pan Am Championships, won the division here as well. Tim Watts won the compound 50+ men’s category through 3 decisive wins in the bracket. Harkunwar Teja was the winner of the compound U13 men’s division, the youngest category in bracket play. 

Only two categories in barebow were contested in match play. James Frigon and Stephen Mahar faced off in a gold medal match; Frigon became the Canadian Champion in the barebow 50+ men’s division. Jamie Morse, who is a PEI local, defeated George Zimmerman in the final for the barebow 50+ men’s competition.

To see the results of this competition, click here: https://www.ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=11469

It was a successful Canadian Outdoor Championships after what has been a long time waiting due to COVID. PEI has been waiting two years to host this event and did not disappoint when they had the opportunity to do so. 

This event wraps up the national event calendar for 2022. Archery Canada, while preparing for the remaining international competitions awaiting our national level archers, look toward the 2023 3D Indoor Championships next year. They will take place in Calgary, Alberta from March 24-26, 2023. 

For more information, please contact:

Zoe Meil, Communications & Safe Sport Coordinator

zmeil@archerycanada.ca (613) 260-2113 ext. 3