LAC LA BICHE - From Aug. 2-9, around 500 professional archers from coast to coast were in Lac La Biche for the 2025 3D, Field, and Target Outdoor Canadian Championships.
During the national competition, which was hosted by the Lakeland Archers club, the archers shot at 3D targets depicting wild animals such as buffalo, deer, bear and bighorn sheep, and took aim at standard targets. The events were held on the wooded courses at the Lakeland Archers Club in Lac La Biche County as well as on the artificial turf fields at the Bold Centre.
The 3D events took place from Aug. 1-4, while the Field Championships went from Aug. 5-6.
On Aug. 7, a large contingent of target archers gathered at the Bold Centre turf field to participate in the Fred Usher Memorial Cup, which was part of the three-day target competitions.
Fred Usher, who passed away in 1988, was involved in the archery scene in Victoria, B.C., for four decades, and was a Canadian team manager and world-class judge. Usher also served as a commentator for the Olympic games in 1976 and 1984.
The target and field competitions for the Nationals included compound, recurve, and barebow events, while 3D competitors shot in categories that included barebow, traditional, longbow, and hunter.
A couple of the competitors who made their way to Lac La Biche for the 2025 3D, Field, and Target Outdoor Canadian Championships were Lisa Darlington and Jordy St. Amant. Darlington, a member of Team Ontario, and St. Amant, who was part of the Saskatchewan contingent, earned gold medals during this year’s nationals.
Darlington won a gold medal in barebow after coming in at first place during the target finals on Aug. 9.
“It feels amazing,” Darlington said. “It’s a lot of work to actually get as far as I have, so I’m pretty happy about it.”
Darlington, who has been involved with the sport of archery for about five years, trained four, sometimes even five days a week, in preparation to travel to Lac La Biche County to shoot in the nationals.
“I don’t only do target, but I do all of the 3D, field, and target, so I had to practice a lot,” she explained.
For Darlington, spending a week in Lac La Biche was a great experience.
“I loved it . . . it was nice,” she said. “It was beautiful. I love it here.”
St. Amant enjoyed a triple success at nationals, bringing home gold in the 3D, field, and target competitions.
When asked how it feels to win three gold medals, St. Amant replied by saying, “Very good, very accomplishing. It’s my first nationals with all three competitions in one.”
Competing in nationals helped to prepare St. Amant for the 2025 World Archery Youth Championships, which are taking place in Winnipeg from Aug. 19-24.
“Doing the Fred Usher Cup and the target rounds taught me to shoot under lots of pressure,” he said.
According to Rene Schaub, president of the Lakeland Archers, the 2025 3D, Field, and Target Outdoor Canadian Championships went well.
“It went really good . . . We had a little bit of difficulty with Mother Nature, but we handled it really good . . . We had lots of volunteers,” Schaub said on Aug. 9.
The last time Lac La Biche played host to the Nationals was in 2014. With the competition returning to the community, Schaub explained, several of the archers who had participated 11 years ago looked forward to coming back.
Schaub thanked Lac La Biche County for lending a helping hand to the Lakeland Archers in organizing the Nationals.
“They helped us out the whole time. So, without them and volunteers, it would have been impossible to do this,” he said.
Top results from the Nationals are as follows:
3D Championships
Barebow Women
1st Samantha Meehan, Nova Scotia
2nd Lisa Darlington, Ontario
3rd Sabrina Van Der Giessen, Alberta
Barebow Men
1st Jovica Djukic, Saskatchewan
2nd Grant Lockhart, British Columbia
3rd Dragosh Olarescu, Ontario
Women’s Longbow
1st Ellen Vander Hoek, British Columbia
2nd April Willis, Manitoba
3rd Theresa Grigg, British Columbia
Men’s Longbow
1st Brent Phillips-Watts, BC
2nd Fred Streleoff, Ontario
3rd Ron Plester, Ontario
Field Championships
Barebow Women 50+
1st Samantha Meehan, Nova Scotia
2nd Trudy Dryden, New Brunswick
3rd Susan Gehlert, Alberta.
Barebow Men 21+
1 - Jovica Djukic, Saskatchewan
2 - Chris Kent-Rodgman, Saskatchewan
3 - Travis Hall, Quebec
Compound U15 Men
1 - Djukic Miras, Saskatchewan
2 - Huska Hudson, BC
3 - Nelson Bennett, Ontario
Compound U18 Women
1 - Acadia Flockton, Manitoba
2 - Grace Trevena, Saskatchewan
3 - Lily Fraser, British Columbia
Target Championships
Compound U15 Women
1st place, Adriana Adamson, Saskatchewan
2nd place, Jiayi Yuan, British Columbia
3rd place, Avery Meger, Yukon
Compound U15 Men
1 - Nelson Bennett, Ontario
2 - Djukic Miras, Saskatchewan
3 - Toye, Wyatt, British Columbia
Recurve U21 Women
1 - Melodie Fortin, Quebec
2 - Spenta Panthaki, Ontario
3 - Alyson Lavoie, Quebec
Recurve U21 Men
1 - Sahil Sahota, Alberta
2 - Florent R. McKinnon, Quebec
3 - Boyuan Li, Quebec
Barebow 50+ Men
1st - Greg Rubell, Manitoba
2nd - Larry Rezka, Ontario
3rd - Marcel Durocher, Ontario
