Archers make their mark at provincials
Provincial event draws more than 100 archers from all over
Archers from all over western Canada took over the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede Grounds this weekend to take part in the Alberta Archery 3D Indoor Provincials.
“This is held every year by our local club,” said one of the organizers, Lynne Brown. “We have over 150 archers here who are competing in different classes, equipment classes and age categories.
“We have everyone from the peewees all the way up to master 60s and above.”
Archers from across Canada’s western provinces were out lining up their shots for provincial titles all weekend long.
“We have shooters from as far north as Grande Prairie and as far south as Montana,” said Brown. “We have some shooters from Saskatchewan as well.”
Brown says archery is something people can start at a young age.
“I think our youngest shooter here is around three years old,” she said. “We have one man up there in his 70s – he’s been doing this for a really long time.
“This is a sport for anyone and it can be a lot of fun.”
The archers line up and fire their arrows at a number of 3D animal targets, each target having scoring zones on them. Higher scores are awarded for landing a precise shot on a ‘kill zone.’ Each archer shoots 21 targets.
“The size of the animal depends on the size of the highest-scoring target,” said Brown. “On a small frog it can be the size of a dime and on an elk it’s about the size of an orange.”