‘3-D’ archery shoot a success

Aim . . . shoot . . . fire.
That is what 37 registered archers concentrated on doing to their best ability during the 3-D archery competition at the Sportsmen’s Club Frog Creek site this past weekend.
“It went great, probably our best competition ever,” said Ben Weirsma, archery club president, who competed in the competition. “This was our most successful one yet . . . people we didn’t expect to show up did and people we expected to show up didn’t,” noted avid archery competitor Ben Weirsma.
Travis Stromness, 10 years old who placed first in the Cub category (12 and under) with a score of 291 out of a possible 350 said his shoot during the tournament went well.
“I did pretty good–there were a lot of good shooters there,” noted Stromness during a phone interview early Tuesday morning. “There were a lot of small shooters at the competition and they were really good,” he enthused.
Stromness noted that he got involved with archery about two years ago –and has participated in about 10-15 competitions since he started.
“This is not my first competition,” said Stromness. “It seemed like a lot of fun so I just wanted to do it,” stressed Stromness.
For Stromness competing isn’t about winning–it is about having lots of fun.
“A lot of the times other kids have beat me–but they are better than me,” he explained.
Stromness’ father Ed participated in the archery competition and also had a good time.
“I didn’t shoot too bad, I placed second,” Ed explained. “I wasn’t shooting quite the way I should have been.”
The senior Stromness stressed that in a competition like this the competitors need to concentrate on what they are shooting.
“It takes a lot of concentration–it is a lot of fun especially when the kids come out to the events,” he noted. “I like to see the kids out at stuff like this–Travis shoots a lot and I don’t mind taking him at all to these 3-D shoots,” he explained.
“It certainly was a fun shoot,” enthused Darryl McLeod. “I started out good but I got tired near the end and didn’t finish as well as I hoped to,” he explained.
McLeod noted that a competition like this is a good warm-up for the hunting season ahead.
“A lot of people do this for the thrill of getting so close to such a large animal–it was great,” he said.
Leanne Donaldson, who took her son to the competition echoed Ed’s comments adding that it is nice to see kids at events like this.
“It is nice because they [the archers] are so encouraging for the kids to come out to the practices and competitions,” she noted.
Ed Stromness noted that it is nice to see so many people out to an event like this.
“I would like to see a few more locals out at the competitions,” he explained. “It would be nice to see some people from Atikokan–Dryden comes down here to shoot in our competitions which is nice because we go up there and support there club and they are coming down here and supporting ours,” he stressed.
Donaldson explained that her son Jason who had never been in a competition did better than she thought he would.
“Jason did better than I thought–he placed third in his category,” she remarked. “He has never competed, turned in his scores or anything like that so he was pleased.”