It is the little archery club that did, producing four Olympians, before becoming the little club without a home in 2020 when a sa国际传媒 Transit hub took over its former range in View Royal.
The Victoria Bowmen’s Club had made a commitment to host the Canadian championships before the pandemic pushed things back and losing its venue complicated things even more.
“To host something this big in the wake of all that happening is daunting, but it will get done,” said Al Wills, president of the Victoria Bowmen for several decades.
The 2023 Canadian championships are being held this week at Juan de Fuca. The field competition took place Tuesday and Wednesday with the target competition, which is the Olympic event, taking place Friday and today from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the Juan de Fuca soccer fields. Admission is free with spectators advised to bring lawn chairs and binoculars.
There are 149 competitors taking place in the target event after 70 competed in the field competition. Competition in target is Olympic format, with head-to-head elimination play, and winners moving on through the brackets.
It’s something the Victoria Bowmen know about, having produced Olympians Vi Muir at Munich in 1972, Wanda Allan at Montreal in 1976 and Los Angeles in 1984, and John McDonald and Brenda Cuming at Seoul in 1988.
“It’s been a wonderful dynasty,” said Wills, also past president of Archery sa国际传媒.
It began in 1949 when the Bowmen club was founded in 1949 in the area between Shelbourne and Richmond streets west of Hillside Avenue.
The club moved in 1953 to Cuthbert Holmes Park before relocation to DND land off Wilfert Road in Colwood from 1965 to 2005 and then to the most recent View Royal location on provincially owned land, which is now being developed as a handyDART bus depot.
The Bowmen have been reduced to shooting indoors at the Saanich Commonwealth Place gym since losing the View Royal range.
“We’ll keep plugging away to get an outdoor venue again and hopefully find a recreation department to work with,” said Wills.
“We’ve got a good legacy in the bank.”
That includes honouring their commitments, as they are doing this week by hosting the national championships at Juan de Fuca. The Bowmen most recently hosted the national championships in 2003 and 2012.
The club also hosted the XXXIX world championships in 1997 at Centennial Stadium, featuring more than 400 archers from around the world, including the medallists from the Atlanta Olympics the year before.
The 2023 nationals come on the heels of a big Canadian story at the recent world championships in Berlin with Eric Peters of Ottawa winning silver, losing in the final to defending Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold-medallist Mete Gazoz of Turkey, to qualify sa国际传媒 for a men’s berth in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
