Osoyoos Traditional Archery School members Miranda Sparkes (left) and club founder Brock Paton returned with gold medals from the recent Canadian 3D Indoor Archery Championships in Cloverdale, B.C., while teammate Sarah Martin captured a silver medal. All three are planning to make Team Canada and compete in the 2017 world championships in France next year. (Photo supplied)
Miranda Sparkes is really happy the founder of the Osoyoos Traditional Archery School paid a visit to the Destination Osoyoos (DO) office just over a year ago.
A mere 14 months after Brock Paton visited the DO office seeking information – Sparkes works as an administrative assistant in the visitor services department with the visitor information and economic development agency – she has become a national archery champion.
“Brock came into the office and was looking for some information and I knew he was involved in archery and we started up a conservation,” said Sparkes, 22. “I told him that I had done some target shooting when I was in high school in Keremeos and he encouraged me to come on out and join his club.
“I decided to accept his offer and went out a couple of times, but I brought my sister Danielle because I was a little shy. I liked it right away and started practicing not long after I joined the club last March.”
Paton, Sparkes and club member Sarah Martin recently returned from the Canadian National 3D Archery Championships in Cloverdale, B.C. with plenty of hardware around their neck.
Paton captured his seventh national championship in the men’s longbow competition, while Sparkes did the same in the women’s division, beating out Martin, who had captured the women’s national title two years ago.
For the uninitiated, “traditional” longbow archery involves competitors shooting wooden arrows from bows made of wood, compared to the more popular compound bows that shoot state-of-the-art composite arrows, said Paton.
“The difference in accuracy is roughly 15 to 20 per cent using the new technology,” he said. “I much prefer longbow as it’s more of a challenge and no two arrows are exactly the same.
“If your goal is to reach the world championships, you also have to be proficient in longbow because that’s all they have at that level and that’s all they shoot in Europe, which dominates the sport.”
After getting hooked on the sport, Sparkes spent last summer and fall attending “fun family shoots that are held all over the place” and solid results led to her joining Paton and Martin at regular winter practices at the Air Cadet hangar in Oliver for several months.
A week before the nationals, Sparkes competed at the provincial championships in Armstrong and captured the gold medal.
Because there are so few women who compete at an elite level in longbow competition, Sparkes’ results are accrued by matching her scores against previous competitors.
At the provincials in Armstrong, she topped the score posted last year by Martin at the same competition.
The three top female archers in the country who were named to Team Canada last year were all in Cloverdale, including Martin, and Sparkes easily defeated all of them to become a national champion.
Paton isn’t surprised.
“First of all, you have to have some God-given talent to excel at this sport or any sport and she certainly has that,” he said. “But the biggest thing with Miranda is hard work and practice. She’s out four or five days a week after work and shooting 30 to 40 arrows.
“She’s become so good so fast simply because of how hard she works. At the provincials, she was beating me after seven (of 10) rounds and I had to shoot my very best to beat her.
“She’s really good and really talented and she deserves all of this success.”
Sparkes admits she’s hooked on the sport and has every intention of making Team Canada and joining Paton and Martin when they compete in the world championships, set for late summer or early fall in France.
“I want to go to the worlds, big time,” she said.
In order to qualify for Team Canada, she will have to compete in several major competitions over the next 15 months, including the upcoming provincial outdoor championships in Prince George in late June and national outdoor championships in Windsor, Ont.
She will also compete at next year’s provincials in Prince George and nationals in Quebec.
As a young woman who recently graduated from university, Sparkes said pursuing her goals in competitive archery aren’t cheap as there isn’t any funding from senior government even for elite archers.
To help pay for her upcoming competitions in Prince George and Windsor, she has set up a “crowd funding” site online, where donations are being accepted.
Anyone wishing to make a donation can visit www.gofundme.com/randgoesforgold.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
