Tyler Dyck
Contributor
In the final day of competition at the 2014 BC Winter Games, the Ag-Rec Building in Abbotsford was buzzing with young archers from across the province early Sunday morning. The final day of archery action brought about the match play finals in all three categories – barebow, recurve, and compound – for both the boys and girls categories.
Gabrielle Courtorielle took gold in the girl’s Bareboow Match Play Final with a score of 83 points, representing the Vancouver Island-Central Coast Zone Six team. Mya Schouwenburg of the Cariboo-North East Zone Eight team captured silver with a score of 75 points. Naveena Leong’s score of 73 was good enough to capture a bronze medal for the Fraser River Delta Zone Four team.
In the boy’s Barebow Match Play Final, Dawson Williams of the Cariboo-North East Zone Eight Team easily won gold with a score of 88 points over his opponent, Christopher Bruce of the Vancouver-Squamish Zone Five team, who scored only 62 points. Duncan Van Der Roest took third place with 66 points in the bronze medal match up.
The Recurve Match Play Finals for the girls proved to be both exciting and dramatic with Shaelin Bishop of North Vancouver taking the gold for the Vancouver-Squamish Zone Five team with 90 points. Emma Huges, also from North Vancouver, made it a close second place finish with 89 points to take silver. In the bronze medal round, Carlina Oddy narrowly won bronze in a match up that was determined by a shoot-off after Oddy and her Fraser Valley teammate, Elizabeth Wall, both finished with 88 points.
Levi Kelbert of the Thompson-Okanagan Zone Two team won the top prize in the boy’s Recurve Match Play Final, scoring 112 points. Lokton Au shot 94 points to win the silver medal for the Vancouver-Squamish Zone Five team and Ethan Shonwise from the Thompson-Okanagan Zone Two team capture the bronze medal with 99 points.
In the last match ups of the day, Karleigh Meier of the Thompson-Okanagan shot a score of 108 in the gold medal round to take first place in the girl’s Compound Match Play Final over the Kootenays Zone One’s Katrina Romanowicz who took the silver medal with a score of 103. Shadae Pollon won the bronze medal, shooting for a score of 107.
Spencer Schouwenburg, won the boy’s Compound Match Play Final gold medal for the Cariboo-North East Zone Eight team. Jordan Adachi from the Kootenays Zone One team took home the silver medal and Jason Dekkers claimed the bronze medal, also for the Kootenays, with a score of 109.
“They’ve been really fun, but also a challenge,” said Dawson Williams of Prince George, winner of two gold medals this weekend. When asked how he initially got in to archery, Williams accredited a close friend; “A buddy of mine did it and got me to try it out. I was hooked.”
