Yukon archer Emmett Kapaniuk wrapped up a very busy archery season recently.

Kapaniuk went to Alberta to compete in the final leg of a 3D archery series this past weekend.

The Alberta ASA Tour PSE Classic took place near Cremona at one of the area's ranches.

"It was my first time ever shooting 3D competitively,” said Kapaniuk, who was in the most competitive male division.

“It started off really rough but by the end I was starting to figure it out so, I'm happy with how I did.”

Kapaniuk finished 24th out of 27 archers, not a bad result for his first time, and considering his age – 17.

"I was the youngest by about two or three years."

Kapaniuk explained how 3D archery works.

"It's a bunch of foam animals inside the woods. You walk around in the woods and you shoot at them from different places."

Kapaniuk said there's a "big difference" between 3D archery and target archery.

There is a time limit but Kapaniuk said the organizers didn't really enforce it.

He said he is planning on doing it again next year.

"My buddies are the ones that convinced me to come down after nationals because I had flights to use from the Air North Gold program. I was lucky enough that I could line it up and I was able to use that to get there and back. So I think next year for sure, I'll come down and do a few more than just the one."

Kapaniuk also competed in the 2023 Canadian Outdoor Target Championships in Victoria Aug. 10-12.

He previously competed in the national competition in 2019 (Sask.) and 2022 (P.E.I.).

Kapaniuk, competing in Compound U18 Male, opened the tournament with a match against Kurt Lalach of B.C., winning 132-129.

He lost his next match against the eventual gold medal winner, Quebec's Justin Gauthier, 137-132.

That led to an all-Yukon showdown with Finn Pearson for the bronze.

"It was his first ever tournament he's been to," related Kapaniuk. "He was shooting really good. It was close the whole time and all of our matches were pretty close. Like, everyone's matches."

Kapaniuk beat Pearson 137-129.

Kapaniuk said his other matches were "not ideal by any means. I struggled a fair bit over the weekend. Just small equipment stuff and then that led to some poor form and just some other stuff.

“There's not really any excuses for it. The weather was perfect. I guess it was kind of just an off weekend.

"Any tournament’s a good tournament when you're coming back with a medal. No one's wanting to come home with bronze, of course. Everyone's wanting to come home with that gold. But I think overall just how I was feeling and some of those struggles that were happening, I'm happy to come home with a medal."

Kapaniuk mentioned his teammates' performances as highlights of the tournament, including Shiori Monzo in the Recurve U15 Female.

"It was her first competition and she was able to take gold."

Mikayla Therriault also captured a gold medal in the Barebow U15 Female.

Kapaniuk said he and two other athletes were the only ones who had previously experienced the national competition.

“It was good to see how some of the other teammates were doing and some of them were pretty fresh to it, too, of course.

"Overall, it was just a good tournament and there was lots of great results," he added.

Kapaniuk said it's great to see his teammates having that kind of success.

"Whenever the Yukon's getting attention and when it comes to archery, it's always great. It helps to grow it. I know classes are getting busy. So definitely the more we keep medaling, the more it seems to be growing and people wanting to get into it. So that's awesome to see, compared to what (it) was even four years ago."

When asked if the younger archers look up to him as a role model, Kapaniuk replied, "I think some of them do. I like to think so. I'm kinda like an older brother to some of them, it seems. I think some of them look up to each other too, even older, younger. And of course I look up to my older teammates that used to shoot with us, too. And of course my brother (Wyatt)."

Kapaniuk was also a recipient of one of the 2022 Premier's Awards of Sport Excellence.

"I think I've won it multiple times now. It just shows I'm doing something right, I guess."

Kapaniuk echoed his thoughts about how winning awards brings more attention to the sport in the Yukon.

"Hopefully I'm gonna keep winning some awards and help keep bringing it to the public in the news and stuff like that."

Kapaniuk was also awarded the Yukon High Performance Athlete Assistance Program grant,

"I was lucky enough to get the Gold funding for that. So that's gonna go a long ways towards all these trips I've had recently."

Kapaniuk said he received approximately $4500 in Gold funding.

He also received a $500 bonus for competing in the 2023 World Archery Youth Championships in Limerick, Ireland, which took place July 3-9.

"It was really, really tricky conditions. Lots and lots of wind and lots and lots of rain. I actually had some equipment failures down there so it didn't go ideal by any means. But when it came to matches, I ended up losing to one of the people from Israel, but I was down by a lot and by the time we were done, I was almost able to pull it together. I think I was only one or two points down from him by the end."

Paz Carmi edged Kapaniuk 139-137. The young Yukon archer finished 39th in the Compound U18 Mens, a respectable result for his first world juniors competition.

Kapaniuk was also part of a Canadian contingent that finished ninth overall in the Compound U18 Men's Team competition.

"It was a really good experience."

Kapaniuk was able to meet some of his archery idols at the championships.

"We were staying at the university there, so all the teams were inter-mingling. I was able to meet a lot of people I've looked up to over the years that are at a really high level."

One of those athletes was U.S. Olympian Casey Kaufhold, 19.

"It was just cool to see people like that down there."

Sawyer Sullivan was another U.S. archer that Kapaniuk ran into.

"He's been really popping off in the world side."

Kapaniuk is hoping to compete in the next world juniors in Winnipeg in 2025.

"It would have been cool to go to Australia or something like that, but I'll settle for Winnipeg."

He gets a bit of a break from competition now. In early February, he'll be going down to Las Vegas for the Vegas Shoot, which fires off Feb. 3-5.

"I was planning on doing it last year but it didn't line up with when I went down to Arctics," related Kapaniuk.

Because of his many achievements, Kapaniuk isn't eligible to compete in the upcoming Arctic Winter Games in Mat-Su, Alaska, but is looking at the possibility of coaching at the games.

"There's a chance I might go down there to get coaching experience. We're still trying to figure that out but I might be down there helping coaching so I'll be still down there, just not competing."

Meanwhile, for Kapaniuk, it's back to school time. However, he is planning on putting his break from archery to good use by getting ready for his next competition.

"I get to fix a bunch of stuff and be ready for the next one."