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Birtle Archer Wins Gold & Bronze at MB Winter Games

A 17-year-old student from Birtle competing in archery for the first time in her life - and with only two months practice - came home from the Manitoba Winter Games in Thompson with two medals.
Birtle archer

A 17-year-old student from Birtle competing in archery for the first time in her life - and with only two months practice - came home from the Manitoba Winter Games in Thompson with two medals. 

Victoria Saliyeva took the Gold Medal in archery recurve - the individual female event and Bronze in the team recurve event with partner Tristan Lew Wenzel of Winnipeg.

“Not only was this my first Manitoba Games experience, but it was also my first ever archery competition,” she said. “I would describe it as absolutely amazing!”

Saliyeva said, “When I was around Grade 7 or 8, I shot a bow for the first time in gym class. Alan Wilson, our Phys. Ed. teacher, has been trying to get me into the sport for the last couple years.

"Our schedules didn’t work until this year and I officially started shooting in January.”

In it to win it

“My family and I laugh about it now because I would always tell them and my coach, ‘I am in it to win it’. Somehow with only two months of practice, I got the gold medal!” 

Saliyeva finds archery a good fit for her personality. She describes herself as a perfectionist who’s always putting pressure on herself to succeed.

“Archery is a very finicky sport and there’s a lot of small details to take care of. You have to do it perfectly each time or it will throw off your shot. That’s what I love about it.”

California born

Saliyeva says her family moved around a lot when she was young. Her parents came from Russia but she was born in Sacramento, California. At age four, the family moved to Chile and then, when she was nine, to Birtle for work opportunities.

Now in Grade 11 and with two medals under her belt, she’s already in training for the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, AB.

“This will be my last chance to participate in the Games so I am really hoping to make it. Overall I am just trying to improve each shot and I will see where it takes me.” 

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