Archers on target

After days of delays caused by the Air Canada strike, hundreds of young archers from across the globe finally stepped onto the line Wednesday morning at Winnipeg’s Grant Park Fields — kicking off the first official competition day of the 2025 World Archery Youth Championships.

With winds gusting up to 38 km/h, athletes battled through a compressed schedule that, for many individual events, packed qualifying and elimination rounds into the same day.

Originally scheduled to open Aug. 17 with 64 countries, travel disruptions forced organizers to condense the eight individual recurve and compound qualification and elimination events from what would have spanned four days into two.

“I’m just so happy that we’re shooting right now,” said Kelly Taylor, event chair. “It’s been a very trying process. Last Thursday, it looked like there might be two teams here, and I joked that, well, I guess Sri Lanka is winning all the medals.”

Despite the setbacks, 489 athletes from 53 countries have made it to Winnipeg, with all competitors rotating through qualifications on Wednesday morning, starting at 10:30 a.m.

For 14-year-old Manitoban archer Khushreet Sandhu, the journey to Grant Park was far less chaotic, competing in her first World Archery Youth Championships in the 18U Compound event.

Sandhu looked right at home, finishing as the top qualifier among Canada’s 23 competitors.

“I’m feeling pretty proud,” said Sandhu. “I know I could have done better, because in the first half, there was no wind, I was just in my head, and I shot less than what I wanted to. Then the second half, I was doing better. There was a lot of wind, but I controlled myself, where people were shooting like sixes and fives and misses, the furthest I went out was an eight.”

With a score of 679 over 72 arrows, Sandhu claimed the fifth seed in her U18 Compound event and a bye into the 1/16 elimination round, where she will face 28th seed Pardini Ginerva of Italy on Friday.

“It was a little intimidating at first,” said Sandhu on her first Youth Worlds. “On the first day of practice, I definitely saw a lot more people than I wanted to, like I was feeling very overstimulated because there were so many people. But it was for the better, because meeting new people, it’s honestly such a nice experience seeing everybody come together in this one sport that I don’t think many people do.”

Sandhu will compete in Canada’s mixed-team event with Harkunwar Singh Teja and the Compound U18 Women’s team alongside Anya Pinel and Jordyn Polowaniuk on Thursday, aiming to advance to the finals in both individual and team events, which run Friday through Sunday at the Forks in downtown Winnipeg.

The other Manitoban competing in Winnipeg is Bailey Mathers, who took part in the Compound U21 qualifiers. She shot 650 over 72 arrows, earning the 35th seed out of 53 athletes.

Mathers, competing in her second Youth Worlds, advanced past the 1/48 round before falling to third-seed Riye Park of Korea in the second round of eliminations.

“Definitely talking with the other countries and playing cards with other Canadians,” said Mathers on her favourite part of the tournament so far. “There are a lot of new people on the team, so quite a few new faces for sure. So just to help build that team dynamic and make sure they feel included as well, because I remember when it was my first time, and it was pretty scary. So I definitely want to be one of those friendly faces.”

Throughout the day, athletes from different countries exchanged pins and jerseys, chatted and competed, a rewarding sight especially after the long, complicated journeys athletes faced to reach Winnipeg, with a few not making it at all.

“You’ve had teams that have gone to extraordinary lengths to get here,” said Taylor. “Mexico chartered a plane. Turkey landed in Vancouver and took the bus. Georgia, the one next to Turkey, not the one next to Alabama, they landed in Toronto, and they drove through Canada. And at the end of it, they get here and they’re still smiling.”

Gummi Gudjonsson, Iceland’s team manager, had to act fast when his team’s flights were cancelled, booking new ones just half an hour after receiving the notification and quickly arranging travel to get his three athletes to Winnipeg in time for the competition.

“It’s a part of life,” said Gudjonsson on impact of the strike, adding his team has adjusted well to Winnipeg’s cloudy conditions.

“The weather is pretty good for us,” said Gudjonsson. “Iceland’s pretty cold in comparison to pretty much everything else you can find. The average temperature is like 14, so I hope the sun doesn’t come out. Just keep the cloudy, windy conditions, that’s fine for us.”

From cold-climate countries like Iceland to hot and humid El Salvador, Winnipeg welcomed a diverse and far-reaching group of teams.

“This is our first experience at the World Youth Championships,” said John Aguilar, coach of the El Salvador team of one. “We are doing what we can to manage, you know, nerves, and expectations, and just trying to have fun.”

Isabella Aguilar, 16, is El Salvador’s only competitor in the 18U recurve event and is coached through sign language due to being hard of hearing.

“It’s a very eye-opening experience for her.” said Aguilar. “Because she hasn’t shot on this level before. She’s mostly shot a lot of tournaments in the United States, and national tournaments in other parts of the world, but nothing like this.”

The Youth Worlds continue Thursday, with individual elimination events resuming after Wednesday evening’s thunderstorm delay, followed by the team competitions.

“The biggest thing for me is the sense of community.” said Taylor. “You get onto this field and all of the political divisions disappear. And now it’s just people celebrating the sport together. And if we could somehow carry that into the wider geopolitical arena, the world would be a much better place.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca