BARRY’S BAY – Ryan Luckovitch is sporting a new gold medal after returning from the 2014 Canadian National Archery Championship.
The Barry’s Bay youth placed first in the Cub Male Category, which pits Canada’s most talented 12-14 year olds against each other.
The competition was held in Lac La Biche, Alberta, during the August long weekend.
While he placed first in his age category last year at the same competition, it is the first year Ryan, 14, travelled as part of Team Ontario.
Ryan shot well at the provincial games and qualified for the team. As an added benefit, the Ontario Archery Association partially paid for Ryan’s flight and hotel during the shoot. There were four people on the team in total, and a team leader as well.
During the competition, Ryan shot at 3-D targets for three days. There were 20 targets the first day, 40 the second and 20 the third day.
Archers were trying to get as close to a score of 880 as possible.
Ryan scored 818, the highest in his age category. In fact, his score was the highest out of all age categories.
It earned him gold for the second year in the row.
“The hard work that I have done really has paid off,” Ryan said. “I tried to practice every day, even when I didn’t want to go practice. It helped a lot.”
While Ryan can enter other shoots, this is pretty much the highest honour he can get in his current age category.
Ryan had never been to Alberta before, but he liked shooting in a different province.
There were several challenges during the three-day shoot, however. The heat was almost unbearable at times, especially when he was forced to wear heavy clothing during the competition.
Get your August 20, 2014 edition of The Valley Gazette to read more of this story.