She may be only 13 years old, but Emerie Watson proved she had nerves of steel on Tuesday.
Competing for Team B.C. in archery, Watson, who calls Quesnel home, fired her way to a fourth-place finish in the female individual compound event at the Northern Sport Centre. She was edged 141-140 by New Brunswick archer Alyssa Murphy of Fredericton in a tightly-contested bronze-medal match.
In the gold-medal final, Kaity Horlock of Ontario narrowly defeated Madison Hart of Saskatchewan 141-140 to earn gold.
"I was focused and confident, and I'm still nervous," Watson said after the heart-stopping match. "Even as I went through the playoffs. I just wanted to shoot my best."
After two days of preliminary competition, Watson was ranked seventh with an overall combined score of 1,125. Murphy was ranked sixth with a score of 1,126.
Tuesday morning, they stood on the line 18-metres away from their targets.
Each match is comprised of five ends, and archers fire three arrows in each end. They have 40 seconds to fire each arrow. In the gold- and bronze-medal matches, it's 20 seconds. A perfect score is 150.
In the first elimination round, Watson dispatched the Yukon's Nila Helm. In the quarter finals, she defeated Nicole Theriault of Nova Scotia 143-141 to advance to the round of four.
In the semifinals against Saskatchewan's Hart, the match was tied at 85-85 after the third end. Hart won the fourth end 29-28 and that proved to be the difference as both archers tied 29-29 and Hart won the match 143-142.
Murphy defeated Quebec's Catherine Robert in the quarters, but lost to top-ranked Horlock in the semifinal 145-137.
The bronze-medal match between Watson and Murphy was intense.
It was tied at 57-57 after two rounds, and Murphy had an 85-84 lead after the third end. The match was all square at 113-113 after four ends going into the fifth and final end. Murphy came through with a 28-27 win to grab the bronze medal.
"This is my first time at a high-level competition like this - I'm enjoying the experience so far at the Games," said Watson, a Grade 8 student who could qualify again for Team B.C. in four years at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer.
In the male individual compound Tuesday morning, Prince George archer Tony Procter of Team B.C. lost 144-141 in the quarter-final to Keegan Parsons of Saskatchewan and was eliminated
Procter was ranked second after two days of preliminary competition with an overall score of 1,163 and had a bye into Tuesday's quarter-final.
"It was tough, it could've been anybody's today," said Procter.
Keenan Brown of Winnipeg, Man., won gold, defeating Quebec's Tommy Plante 145-144.
Cole Beres of Team Alberta defeated Parsons in a shoot-out for bronze.
In the female recurve elimination rounds Tuesday afternoon, Prince George archer Mya Schouwenburg of Team B.C. won her first round with a 6-0 victory over Surene Pretorius of the Yukon. Schouwenburg then lost 6-0 to Shannon Marie Davidson of Ontario.
The compound and recurve team mixed event is today at the Northern Sport Centre at 9 a.m.
