Team Canada visit to Tokyo “important” for Olympic preparation per Crispin Duenas

Canadian recurve archers Crispin Duenas, Brian Maxwell, Hamilton Nguyen and Conner Sorley travelled to Asia early ahead the first stage of the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai. 

They didn’t spend their time in China, though. The quartet instead visited Tokyo and the venues that will host the next Olympic archery events in 2020.

“I think it was important to go there because now we are not going to be tourists when we go to the test event or the Olympics. We are going to go with only the goal to be really good competitors and we won’t have this desire to go exploring because we already did,” said Crispin.

Canadian high performance director Alan Brahmst, and coaches Shawn Riggs and Leith Drury also made the trip.

“We used our time there to shoot some arrows and see the Olympic sights. We did some tours around the city, went to see where the Olympic village is being built and saw the archery venue,” explained Crispin.

“We now know what the field is like, which way it faces, what buildings are around there and it makes me a little bit more conformable knowing this. It will definitely help my visualisation because I’ve seen it; I’ve been on the field, I know what the field feels like, even how it smells.”

The group also practised the all-important transfer from athlete housing to the Dream Island Archery Field, which will take around 35 minutes when the 32nd edition of the Olympic Games takes place in Tokyo in July 2020.

Duenas, who went to Rio 2016 with female teammate Georcy Thiffeault Picard, will try to qualify for his fourth consecutive Olympics in Japan – and he hopes not alone.

“[Our team] loved the culture, the people, the food and we really want to go back. I think it was very helpful for us as athletes, going there,” he said.

The first stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place in Shanghai, China on 23-29 April.