After two days of intense competition, Team Winnipeg Blue walked away with the biggest medal haul in the 2018 Manitoba Winter Games’ archery events.
Even though Team Winnipeg Gold managed to secure four medals in total, Team Blue edged them out with six pieces of hardware thanks to the efforts of athletes like Roman Boyechko and Chyler Sanders.
Boyechko started out strong in the first day of competition on March 5, by capturing gold in the mixed team event alongside fellow archer Hailee MacDonald. On March 6, Boyechko brought home another gold medal in the individual male recurve finals by a score of 6–0.
While Boyechko was the favourite to win in this event, his teammate Sanders staged a big upset in the individual female compound competition.
Going into the final shootout on March 6, Nattasha Shpak from Team Gold was ranked first with Sanders following closely behind her. After a nail-biting couple of minutes, Sanders eventually bypassed Shpak by a final score of 140–133 to clinch the top spot.
“Nattasha is so good at shooting and I was just very nervous,” Sanders told the Thompson Citizen following her gold medal matchup. “And I totally expected her to win, or at least get a couple points under her.”
However, according to team manager Carrie Minion, Sanders earned every little bit of that upset.
“She’s been putting in a lot of work,” said Minion. “Honestly, she’s been the kid that’s been coming to the range the most often. Just every day she came to practice.”
Team Blue also scored a pair of silver medals courtesy of Sloane Scrivener, who excelled by getting second place in the individual male compound competition and by pairing up with Sanders in the mixed team competition.
