The gym at Takhini Elementary School was silent on Sunday as the archers stepped up to the line, unsheathed their arrow and loaded their bow. In silent concentration, they would look down the arrow or through the sight, eyes on the target. As they released, there was a swish and a thud as the arrow found its mark.

Eleven archers competed in the Yukon Aboriginal Sport Circle Winter Indoor Archery Tournament. The tournament typically happens around Christmas, but due to flooding at Takhini Elementary, it had to be pushed back.

The archers competing had their choice of three bows to fire: the recurve, the compound, and the barebow instinctive.

According to coach Warren Kapaniuk, four of the competing archers will be headed to the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer. Two compound bow archers and two recurve bow athletes, male and female in each category, will be representing the Yukon at the games. Kapaniuk said the tournament was good practice for them.

“We had the four Games athletes as well as the two alternate archers,” said Kapaniuk. “It’s good practice, they are shooting at targets they wouldn’t be shooting at unless they are at the Canada Winter Games, so it’s about getting more arrows shot in preparation for the Games.”

The Games archers were shooting at a vertical three of smaller targets. The athletes had to shoot one arrow into each target, and the arrow scored a zero if it went into a previous shot target.

The targets varied slightly depending on whether the archer was using a compound bow or a recurve bow. Since the compound bow is more accurate, the centre 10 is smaller and can only fit one arrow. The centre ten for a recurve is slightly bigger.

“In most competitions, the archers would be shooting at larger targets,” said Kapaniuk. “Since the Canada Winter Games go up to 20 (years of age) so they use the size that 18-19- year-olds would be shooting on.”

For three of the archers headed to the Games, they will still be eligible for the next one as well. The goals for this year’s CWG is to gain experience.

“For them, this is a first time seeing what it’s like,” said Kapaniuk. “Hopefully we can set higher goals for the next one. They have all travelled outside for competitions, so travelling outside isn’t something new. They just haven’t done a competition of this size before.”

The archers on Sunday shot two rounds before getting into match play. Match play is something new to archery and was first introduced at the Olympics, which places the archers in a head-to-head competition. This format was introduced to make archery more exciting for the casual spectators.

When shooting recurve, Kapaniuk said that the archer that wins the round, after shooting three arrows, will score two points. If scores are the same after the round then each archer scores one point each. The competitor to reach six points first wins the match and will move forward.

If an archer is using a compound bow they will shoot five rounds. Kapaniuk says since scores remain close throughout, they will just accumulate their score through the five rounds, instead of scoring two points for a win compared to the recurve. The archer closest to 150 at the end of the five rounds will move forward in the competition.