Tony Procter turned a day of disappointment on the Canada Winter Games archery range into unfettered joy Wednesday at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
Shut out of the medals the day before in the individual compound bow competition, the 17-year-old from Prince George teamed up with Emerie Watson of Quesnel in the compound team event to win the bronze medal by the slimmest of margins, defeating Christopher Lewis Golden and Alyssa Murphy of New Brunswick 151-150.
"Emerie shot amazing to hold us in the match, which led us to the bronze," said Procter. "We missed out on gold by two points."
Procter, a member of the Silvertip Archers in Prince George, was in second place in the individual event after two days of preliminary competition but was eliminated in the quarterfinal round Tuesday. He carried the additional pressure of competing at home in front of family and friends and faced up to that with a performance worthy of the medal podium.
"I didn't shoot the greatest after the first two days so it's kind of nice to get this bronze medal - it's quite amazing," said Procter. "It's taken five years of training."
Keenan Brown and Bryann Lameg of Manitoba captured gold with a 153-152 match win over Tommy Plante and Catherine Robert of Quebec.
Compound bows utilize cables and pulleys to maximize energy storage when the archer draws the bow. Wednesday's team competition was the final archery event of the Games.
