Two-time medalist Tristan Moran practices in Prince Albert on Saturday. (Brady Bateman/paNOW Staff)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Shooting Targets

Bending bows at the archery nationals

Jul 29, 2019 | 2:31 PM

The long wait is over for Prince Albert’s best archers to compete at nationals in their own backyard.

P.A.’s Tristan Moran, a two-time medalist at world events, will be one of the 450 athletes from across the country at the 2019 Canadian National Archery Championships at the Prince Albert Wildlife Federation.

“It’s good. It’s something we’ve been looking forward to for a few years when we found out we were going to do it,” Moran said. “It’s nice not to travel and be able to sleep at home still. I’m looking forward to it.”

Moran picked up a bronze in the 2018 World Archery Indoor Championships, South Dakota, and a silver medal at the 2017 at the worlds in Argentina at the Under-21 level.

But Moran won’t be the only shooter from Prince Albert to keep an eye on.

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Hannah Siwak will be shooting in her first nationals, but has some experience at big events like the Vegas Shoot in Nevada back in February.

“It’s exciting to be at home, because you can have your family and support from everybody you know,” Siwak said. “It’s really good for our club too, to get us out there and see all of our shooters. It should be fun, I’m excited. I’m a little nervous, but it will be good.”

There will be some younger athletes competing as well. Prince Albert’s Cohen Quick is only 11, but has already been in the sport for the last five years. Although he’s been to three national indoor shoots, this will be his first national out in the sun.

Quick got started in the sport after he showed a big interest in hunting.

“I went hunting with my dad lots, so they thought I’d learn to shoot a bow so they put me in this,” Quick said. “Then I got into competitive archery.”

Quick said he loves the responsibility and individuality of competing in archery.

“It’s yourself, so if something bad happens, you can only blame yourself and not blame another person,” Quick said. “It’s not a team sport.”

Jeff D’Andrea’s introduction to the sport

The Timberland Bowbenders were kind enough to let me fire off a few arrows during a practice on Friday.

Thanks to some helpful tips from Tristan Moran and coach Stacey Moran, I actually fared pretty well. They gave me a nice recurve bow, which kind of reminded me of a modern version of a longbow you’d see in movies. After showing me how to load it and stand, my first two shots ever not only both landed on target, but were pretty close to the bullseye. I scored eight on both of my first two shots, then got a little too cocky and missed my third arrow.

Big thanks to the Bowbenders for letting me try out the sport. It won’t be the last time I hit a target, that’s for sure.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW