Sydney Watson, 17, didn’t come home with a medal, but she did come home with a new Canadian record and a ton of confidence.
Watson collected two top-ten finishes at the outdoor World Archery Youth Championships in Legnica, Poland, Aug. 22 – 28.
“Phenomenal,” Watson’s coach Dale Chapplow said to describe her achievement.
“It’s a great showing for a first time at this level,” former world bronze medalist in 3D archery Samantha Wright said.
The ton of confidence came during the elimination round of the women’s cadet compound bow competition, according to Sydney’s father, Scott Watson, who accompanied Sydney to Poland.
Sydney, who finished second in the qualifying round, earned a bye in the first round of elimination match play.
In the second round, with just 32 archers remaining, Sydney faced Sabrina Franzoi of Italy who qualified in 31st place.
After 15 arrows the two archers were tied at 133.
In the single arrow tie-breaker, Franzoi scored nine points, just missing the bulls-eye.
Sydney mustered all of her confidence and fired a 10 to earn a spot in the round of 16.
For Scott Watson, Sydney’s father, the tie-breaker shot marked an important turning point for Sydney.
“I could tell her confidence level just shot up,” he said.
In the round of 16, Sydney faced Rachel Hughes of New Zealand.
Down by three points going into the final set of three arrows, Sydney fired 29, two tens and a nine.
Unfortunately, Hughes fired 27, a ten, a nine and an eight to win the match by a single point, 143-142.
“I was disappointed,” Sydney said of her initial reaction following her elimination.
“But I was proud of myself.”
In the end, Sydney finished the world championships ranked 10th in the cadet women category.
Like all good fathers, Scott admitted he could see what was going through Sydney’s mind during the elimination rounds and following the end of the match, although he wasn’t allowed, he ran onto the field of play to give Sydney a hug.
“I felt what she was feeling because that’s what I’m seeing,” Scott said.
“I knew she was disappointed when she ended up losing the last match.
“But she shot really well in that match too.”
Chapplow was also pleased with Sydney’s effort during the elimination round, but knows she needs to be challenged to learn how to deal with the pressure of the match play format of the elimination round.
“That’s the one aspect we have to work on,” Chapplow said.
“When she’s shooting on a long line during the qualification round, she shoots well.
“There’s a little more panic when it’s one-on-one in the elimination round.
“She tries to do too well, instead of doing what she can.”
In the qualifying round, on the first day of competition, Sydney shot two rounds of 36 arrows at a distance of 50m.
In her first set of 36 arrows, Sydney fired a 333, which put her in eighth place.
She followed that up by firing a 346 in the second round, the highest score on the day.
“I just blocked everybody out and thought about my arrows,” Sydney said to explain her second round improvement.
Her two round total of 679 put her in a tie for second place overall.
Also, unbeknownst to Sydney during the second round of qualification, her two-round total of 679 established a new Canadian record, shattering her old record of 662.
“I was just thinking about every shot,” Sydney said.
“I don’t think about records while I’m shooting.”
The second round score and two-round total made for a very happy Chapplow who followed the action on the Federation International de Tir-a-l’arc website.
“For her to shoot her personal best under that much stress is impressive,” Chapplow said of Sydney’s second round of 36 arrows.
Although somewhat disappointed about not making it into the top three, Sydney said she was pleased with her performance and acknowledged the world championships were a valuable experience.
“I loved it,” she said with a big smile.
“I didn’t think I would be as uptight as I was.
“But once I started shooting I was able to relax.”
Being able to relax at an international competition is not as easy as it might seem, even for Sydney who has several successful national competitions under her belt.
Sydney pointed to the number of competitors, more than 700, as one element she had not anticipated going into the competition, especially when they are all elite archers.
The size of the competition also impressed Scott, who was amazed at how well the event was organized.
“It was awesome,” he said.
In addition to competing in the compound cadet women’s individual competition, Sydney also teamed up with Christopher Gordon, a native of Tracy, New Brunswick, for the cadet mixed-team competition.
“It was fun,” Sydney said with a chuckle.
“But it was hard for me to shoot fast.”
In the team competition, each team fired 16 arrows, eight per team member, four arrows at a time and to add a level of difficulty, competitors had only 80 seconds to fire each set of four arrows.
The pair finished the competition ranked fifth, following a 151 – 145 win against Belgium in the first elimination round, followed by a tough tie-breaker loss to Denmark in the quarter-finals.
Sydney and Christopher shot another 151 in the quarter-finals match, but Denmark matched them and outshot the Canadians 19-16 with two tie-breaker arrows.
The Canadian duo finished the mixed-team cadet compound bow competition ranked fifth.
In the end, the overall experience was amazing, Scott said and he is ready to do it again should Sydney qualify for the next world youth championships in two years.
“I was excited just to see Sydney there,” Scott said.
“The experience of being there,” Sydney said was the best part of the world championships.
Sydney has little time to rest, as she heads to Burnaby this weekend for an outdoor competition with archers from across Canada.
The weekend competition is registered with FITA and the Federation of Canadian Archers, which means new Canadian and world records will be recognized.
Competitors shoot two rounds of 36 arrows at 50 m on Saturday, then rounds at 60, 50, 40 and 30m on Sunday.
Sydney currently holds the cadet woman Canadian records for the 72 arrows at 50m, as well as at the 60, 50 and 30m distances.
