The Yukon Aboriginal Sports Circle held an indoor archery tournament recently.

The winter shoot took place Saturday at Takhini Elementary school in Whitehorse.

A recreation shoot took place in the morning, followed by a registered shoot in the afternoon.

The recreation shooters are younger archers that don’t shoot at the regulation 18 metres from the target that the registered shooters do.

“It gives them a chance to have a competition and get a feel for what it’s like,” related Yukon Aboriginal Sport Circle archery coach Warren Kampaniuk.

The afternoon event was registered with Archery Canada.

The registered shooters had their scores recorded and then submitted to Archery Canada for rankings purposes.

“It’s more of the competitive shooters that travel Outside and compete for the Yukon,” explained Kapaniuk.

“When they need archers for a national event, the first thing they do is look at your rankings. The more events you get in and the better score you do, the higher up you rank and the more opportunities you have to shoot.”

Kapaniuk said the Alaska Juneau Arctic Sports team joined in on the recreational shoot, since they were in town.

He said the morning shoot had a full range and went well.

As for the afternoon, Kapaniuk said he thought it was “going good for all of them. Most of them shoot against each other all the time in practices and stuff but we have an adult recurve and an adult compound, so there is a few new people that are shooting against them.”

In total, each archer shot 600 arrows in the afternoon session, 20 rounds of three arrows each.

The Star spoke with Sheori Manzo and Daniel Mead during a break. Manzo, 13, was asked what her goal for the competition was. “Hitting the yellow,” she replied, referring to the middle of the target.

Manzo, of course, competed in Brazil in August as part of the International School Sport Federation 2023 U15 High School Multi-Sport Competition.

She said it was “amazing. But I think the thing that got to me was the heat because my body was not very used to it. And it was way hotter there than over here.”

Regarding her shooting Saturday, Manzo said she was “doing good.”

Manzo got into archery as a result of a school field trip.

Mead, 15, said he felt “pretty good about the day’s shooting. I’m shooting really well but I screwed one end over.”

Mead had a mishap on one of his shots.

“It’s just one shot and then it’s kind of gone. My goal is 261, so even dropping down two points from a 7 to a 5 could be the difference between getting the next badge and not getting it.”

Mead was inspired by the Elfin archer Legolas from Lord of the Rings.

“I thought he was pretty cool and signed up for archery.”

Mead added he’s like to try out for the national team one day.

“Being the best at something is always a good goal.”

Manzo and Mead won’t be competing in the Arctic Winter Games, since their recurve bows aren’t included in the competition. Their next competition they’re shooting for is the B.C. Indoor Championships, which take place Easter weekend, March 29-31 in Maple Ridge.

The Star also spoke with Delia Therriault and Finn Pearson after the competition.

Therriault, 15, said, “I had a rough start but towards the end, I started picking up points and it turned out pretty good.

“It’s really nice to do registered shoots because it gets you ready for competitions, so I try and treat it like a competition as much as possible, so it does stress me out a little bit more, because we don’t do it as often, and we are sending our scores in to Archery Canada. But I think it’s a really good prep when you’re going to bigger competitions and even smaller competitions out of the territory.

“The more competitions you do, the better you are and the less stressed you are.”

Therriault also competed in Brazil, where she won bronze in the Compound Girls category.

“It was an amazing experience. A huge culture shock. I’ve never been outside of Canada before, but it was super-fun.”

Therriault will be competing in the Arctics in Mat-Su, Alaska, in March.

“That’s all I have planned right now, but I’m sure there will be a few more competitions after that.”

Pearson said he’s an alternate for the Arctics.

“I’m not too happy about it because I’ve been doing this a long time but I haven’t really – there was nationals, but that’s really the only big competition I’ve done. I worked hard but I just choked at the last hurdle, but I did better today, so I’m quite happy with that. Today’s gone quite well.”

Pearson, 17, attributed Saturday’s success to good coaching and experience.

“I’m at the point where I know what I’m doing and how I can change things to improve.”

Pearson also has his sights set on the upcoming B.C. Indoors competition.

“I’ll be going off to university next year, so this is the last bit of competition I’ll be doing for a while.”

Pearson added, “I had a really fun competition. I’m friends with everyone here. Great archers. It’s nice to shoot with them in a more serious environment than just practice. It’s nice to compete with your friends.”

Since 2017, there hasn’t been one competition that the archery team has gone to where they haven’t won a medal.