{"id":7831,"date":"2014-08-20T12:11:57","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T16:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7831"},"modified":"2014-09-04T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T03:40:09","slug":"local-archer-strikes-provincial-gold-at-ontario-summer-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-archer-strikes-provincial-gold-at-ontario-summer-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Local archer strikes provincial gold at Ontario Summer Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

15-year old archer Hayden Edwards made the trek to Windsor last weekend to compete in the Ontario Summer Games, Ontario\u2019s largest multi-sport event now in its 44th year.<\/p>\n

Amidst some strong competition, Edwards was able to take home provincial gold in only his first year of competing outdoors.<\/p>\n

Held in Windsor from August 7 to 10, the Ontario Summer Games (OSG) was described by team manager Lynn Acri as \u201ca stepping stone for young athletes.\u201d <\/p>\n

While Edwards had recently competed in the US Nationals for archery in Ohio, he said he found the OSG to be more of a \u201ctaste of the Olympics\u201d.
\n\u201cIt was a better feel for a wide-range event,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cWith all the different sports there, and seeing different athletes from different sports, it had that vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up in Aurora, Edwards focused his athletics on minor hockey. When his uncle bought him his first bow three years ago, rep hockey stood in the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never really got a chance to use it,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cThen one day we got a hold of my uncle\u2019s coach, and I guess she just paid a lot of attention to me. I picked it up well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards now plays house league hockey on weekends, choosing to put his focus on his archery.<\/p>\n

Edwards\u2019 uncle is Rob Rusnov, former Olympic archer and two-time Pan-Am Games gold medalist. Under the wing of Rusnov and Canadian Olympic Archery coach Joan McDonald, Edwards shot strong in the Cadet division of 17 and under. He finished with a final score of 1,578, almost 100 points ahead of second place.<\/p>\n

According to Edwards, the gold medal was the culmination of hard work and support from those close to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was everything. My coach was supportive, my uncle was supportive, and my whole family was very supportive. They encourage me to keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about his future in archery, Edwards admits that the Olympics are already on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about it, and I think it would be a really cool thing. It\u2019s something that\u2019s always there.\u201d
\nAs for now, Edwards is looking to shoot in as many tournaments as he can to keep excelling.<\/p>\n

The Central Zone Team, comprised of archers from Simcoe, Dufferin, Peel, Toronto, and Waterloo, combined for four gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15-year old archer Hayden Edwards made the trek to Windsor last weekend to compete in the Ontario Summer Games, Ontario\u2019s largest multi-sport event now in its 44th year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/2014-08-21-07.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}