Sarah Martin achieved her year-long goal of making the Canadian Archery team recently.
The South Similkameen resident only recently took up the sport, picking up a bow in July of 2013 with designs on extending her hunting season.
“I’m an active hunter, and I wanted to extend the hunting season with a bow license,” she explained. She began practising, and soon discovered she was good at it. She attracted the attention of local coach (Osoyoos) Brock Paton and over the course of the year competed in several qualifying competitions, including the Canadian Indoors in Lethbridge, the B.C. Provincials in Duncan, the Alberta Provincials in Medicine Hat and the Canadian Outdoors in Lac La Biche. She won gold in all events.
Thirty-three archers submitted their names to the national team for consideration.
Qualifying for the national team brings with it increasing training demands.
For the next two months, Martin will be shooting twice a week and ramping up her physical training. She will be winter shooting in Oliver, increasing the number of shoots to three or four per week.
“I’ll be building up to firing 100 arrows a day,” she said, in time for the start of tournament competition that begins in March.
“British Columbia only has one or two registered shoots in 2015,” Martin said. “There are a number of fun shoots that we’ll use for training, on the coast and the interior, including the Canadian Indoor Nationals in Cloverdale.”
Martin hopes to be ready to head to France next September where the 3D Worlds will be held. The worlds take place every two years; Montreal has applied for the 2017 event. The sport of 3D archery is not an Olympic event.
Martin will also be looking at fundraising events to help pay for the increasing costs of travel and competition. The national archery team does not receive government funding.