With nine Paralympic Games between them, Canada’s target trio hope to capitalize on their experience in archery and shooting at the Paralympic Games which run August 24 to September 5 in Tokyo.
In Para archery, Van Nest is set for her sixth Games. The Wiarton, Ont. athlete actually started in shooting Para sport, first competing in pistol at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. She posted top-five performances in both Sydney and Athens.
She switched to archery after the Beijing Games and earned three top-10 finishes over the last two Games in London and Rio.
The lefthander is ranked world No. 27 by World Archery in the women’s compound open. In March 2021 she won the silver medal in the event at the Pan Am Para Archery Championships. She lost to Mariana Zuniga of Chile in the final 144-135.
Her most recent competition was in Czech Republic in July where she reached the round of 16. She was pleased with her performance in preparation for the Tokyo Games.
In Tokyo she’ll compete in the compound open hoping to improve upon her ninth-place finish in Rio. The compound bow uses a levering system of pulleys and cables, making it faster and more accurate than other types of bow.
Her top opponents include defending Games champion Zhou Jiamin of China, Jessica Stretton of Great Britain, the W1 champion in 2016 who has switched to the compound open, and Nur Syahidah Alim of Singapore who beat Stretton in the 2019 world championship final for the gold.
The women’s compound open is set for August 27, 29, and 30 in Tokyo.
Canada will be represented in shooting Para sport by Lyne Tremblay and Doug Blessin. Tremblay, a qualified glider and aeroplane pilot, competed in Para archery at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games. Tokyo is her first in the sport of shooting. For his part
Blessin has stuck with shooting through his Paralympic sports career. It’s a third Paralympics for both.
Blessin and Tremblay will both compete in the SH2 mixed 10m air rifle standing (August 30), 10m air rifle prone (September 1), and 50m rifle prone events (September 4) in Tokyo. It will be the first competition for the pair since October 2019.
Top shooters in their events include five-time Paralympian and triple Games medallist Michael Johnson of New Zealand as well as McKenna Dahl, who made US history by becoming the first American woman since 2004 to win a Paralympic medal in the sport with bronze at Rio 2016.
