The archery team at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta., shot in the second round of qualifying yesterday at Westerner Park.

The team has four athletes competing at the games. Wyatt Kapaniuk and Emma Tom Tom are shooting in the recurve bow category while Sofija Jewell and Vincent Ménard are competing with compound bows.

The archers in each class shoot 60 arrows - the highest score they can achieve in a round is 600.

After scoring 569 on her first day of qualifying Jewell had a tougher day at the range shooting 556. Ménard shot 563 in the first round and scored one better in his second round totalling 564.

In recurve, Tom Tom shot 362 and 348 respectively. Kapaniuk’s arrows on day one found the target for a score of 470.

His score dropped some yesterday to 449.

As well as their scores counting towards their individual rounds, their scores are totalled for the team round for each make of bow.

Kapaniuk and Tom Tom’s scores added gave them a total of 797 as they sit in eighth place. Menard and Jewell also sit in eighth in the mixed team compound category with a score of 1,120.

After the first round of shooting, archery coach Warren Kapaniuk said these are the best results seen at the Games.

“It is definitely our best archery showing at the Canada Winter Games,” said Warren. “It is pretty exciting.” Warren said they have shot better in Whitehorse but he and the team are very happy with the scores they’ve shot.

“It was overwhelming at first seeing what level of archery is being shot at the Games,” said Warren. “Once we got out there, saw the others team shoot, saw that it is the same target, same distance away and the same buzzer, we saw that we can shoot with these kids.”

After strong shooting in the first round, all the Yukon archers will be in a good place for the preliminary rounds. The archers across the classes will get matched against another archer and the higher score will move on.

Warren said in the head-to-head round the archers just have to stay in their lane.

“They all have to really focus on their steps, breath and stay calm,” said Warren. “Just worry about what you can control.”

The success of the team so far is no surprise after hearing about their practice.

“It is the best archery team we have had,” said Warren. “We have year-round practise. The Canada Winter Games are just one event. We will be off to other competitions later and maybe give some of those who didn’t come to the Games an opportunity.”

The preliminary rounds begin today at Westerner Park.