You can see the focus and pursuit of precision in Miranda Sparkes eyes.
For the 24-year-old Keremeos woman archery is more than a hobby, it’s a sport.
“As soon as you start getting, hitting the bullseye or getting the targets you’re supposed to, you feel awesome and you just want to keep doing it,” Sparkes said.
The Keremeos woman recently won gold in women’s longbow at the Canadian Outdoor 3D Nationals.
She also out shot all of the male competitors in the category.
Sparkes competes in longbow with wooden arrows, the most challenging category, to shoot at life-like animal targets.
“It’s the hardest one to shoot so I thought I’d go all out and try the hardest one,” she said.
Now Sparkes has her sights set on something bigger.
She will represent Canada next month at the World Archery Championships in France.
Sparkes credits her coach, the founder of the Osoyoos Traditional Archery School Brock Paton for her success.
The competitive archer only entered the sport in 2015, but has quickly moved up the ranks.
Paton has a reputation for demanding excellence.
“I’m not here to make friends with them, I’m here to make a top archer,” he said, acknowledging he’s a “tough” coach.
Sparkes hopes her story will inspire other young women to get involved in the unconventional sport, which is still dominated by men.
“I don’t think they are exposed to it enough and know that it’s an option to get into something like this and I really encourage them to do it,” she said.
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