Brock Paton, the founder of the Osoyoos Traditional Archery School, said he couldn’t be prouder of his prize student Sarah Martin, who has quickly become Canada’s finest female target archer. Martin and Paton have been named to Canada’s national team that will be competing in the world championships in France next fall. (Keith Lacey photo)
Sarah Martin joined the Osoyoos Traditional Archery School because she loves hunting and had planned on starting to hunt prey with a bow and arrow.
“I’m an avid hunter and I wanted to start hunting with a bow because of the extra challenge,” said Martin, who was born and raised in Whitehorse in the Yukon. “Last fall was the first time I had ever hunted with a bow.”
If someone would have told her she would become a national champion archer only 13 months after joining the Osoyoos club, she simply would not have believed such a thing could happen.
But it has happened as Martin, 40, captured the women’s national championship in the traditional longbow category at the Canadian National 3-D Archery Championships in Lac La Biche, Alta. in late summer.
Martin, her husband Karl Eriksen and her two teenage daughters moved from the Northwest Territories to Cawston 16 years ago.
Martin and family friend Alex Rousseau, 18, decided to join the Osoyoos archery club in the summer of 2013. Rousseau captured the junior title at the nationals, while coach and club founder Brock Paton captured the longbow division outdoor national title for the fifth time.
Martin and Paton have been named to Canada’s national archery team and both plan on representing their country at the world championships next fall in France.
Martin said she quickly realized she had an affinity for archery that went way beyond sharpening up her hunting skills.
In 3-D archery, competitors shoot at life-size animal targets that range in size from rodents to large animals like deer, moose, elk and bison.
“After a couple of months I was shooting in the 40 to 50 per cent range and was happy with that as a beginner, but then you start practicing more and you want to get better and aren’t satisfied until you get to around 60, which is the range a lot of competitive archers are at.
“Then I started entering competitions and getting good results and I wanted to do even better. The top male competitors are regularly around 70 per cent or slightly higher and now that’s my target.’
In winning the provincial indoor championship this past spring, Martin gave notice that she was a special talent as she hit more than 63 per cent of her targets.
She wasn’t quite as accurate at nationals, but it was still good enough to claim the national title only 13 months after taking up the sport.
“It was very humid in Lac La Biche and it affected the weight of my bow and the arrows and I kept missing low for the first couple of shoots, but I didn’t mind because all of the other ladies had to shoot under the same conditions,” she said. “Once I adjusted, I shot a little better and managed to be pretty consistent for the rest of the competition.”
The opening day of competition was also made more difficult as it took her and Paton 17 hours to drive from Osoyoos and Lac La Biche, she said.
After winning provincials, Martin admitted her only goal heading to nationals was to win it all.
“My goal was gold as I figured I might as well set my sights for the top,” she said. “Even though I’m fairly new to the sport, I had been getting some terrific results and figured I could compete against the best in the country.
“I was hoping to win, but not sure if I would or not. The tough part is they don’t post your final scores until several hours after you’re finished shooting. The one woman I figured had a chance to beat me finished the course and when I asked her how she had shot, she looked at me and said, ‘it’s yours’.”
Martin is the top-ranked archer of the four women named to Canada’s national team. She fully intends on practicing harder than ever to get prepared for the world championships in France.
The city or town and exact date of the competition have yet to be finalized.
“I’m going to France 100 per cent,” she said. “I know it means another full year of hard practice, but I’m ready for it.
“I have been shooting roughly 50 arrows per day in practice, five or six days a week, and the plan is to increase that to 100 arrows per day, six days a week,” she said. “That’s what all of the top competitors do, so that’s what I’m going to have to do.”
She has decreased practice time now that winter has arrived, but still practices regularly by shooting indoors at the Bighorn Air Cadet Squadron building in Oliver three times a week and will ramp up her practice schedule once the outdoor range on Strawberry Creek Road can open in early spring.
Paton said he knew within weeks that Martin was a special athlete and competitor.
“When I went to nationals last year, I told a few of my friends there that I had this lady at our club who was going to make our national team this year and they said it couldn’t be done because she was new to the sport,” he said.
“Most of them were at the national indoors and they were in awe. Sarah shot 89 per cent in the first round and was leading all categories and they all agreed she was something special.”
With another year of hard practice, Paton is convinced Martin can compete with the world’s best female archers.
“I have no doubt at all she will make the top 16 and after that, it’s wide open and comes down to who is on their best form,” he said. “She has the talent and work ethic to continue improving and she should be something else a year from now. She has a very rare talent and she’s just getting started in this sport.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
