With a quiet, smooth motion, Gayle Turnbull takes a deep breath, pulls back on her recurve bow and within seconds, sends an arrow whistling down the range and into a target, narrowly missing her mark.
“I do a lot of shooting,” said the Truro resident. “It takes a lot of shooting. It’s really the only way you can improve your accuracy.”
Archery is nothing new to Turnbull. She started shooting when she was a teenager, following in the footsteps of her mother and father. After attending the Canada Games and a number of other national events, she started straying away from the sport.
Eventually, she got married, had children and dropped the sport all together. Once her children grew up, she found herself wondering what she was going to do. The discovery of her old bow soon provided an answer.
“As most parents know, once you have kids, you start following them and you’re doing what they want to do,” she said. “Now that they are grown up and out of the house, it allowed me to start thinking about what I wanted to do again. I started shooting again and thought I had found a nice recreational activity to occupy some of my time.”
It didn’t take long for Turnbull to realize she had the same competitive drive she enjoyed as a teenager. She once again found herself competing on the national stage, finishing fourth in the final standings for the Canadian Archery Championships and more recently competed on the international stage at the World Archery Indoor Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The event was held February 5-9 and marked the first time Turnbull had competed at a world championship event.
“I actually made it to the shoot-offs, which was pleasing,” she said. “For my first time going, I was the top recurve bow shooter for the women, which was a nice accomplishment. I entered the shoot-offs ranked 32nd which meant I had to go up against the number one person, who was from Russia. In the end, I came out with a 17th place finish out of 35, so I was pretty happy with that.”
In addition to her placing, competing in Las Vegas also gave Turnbull some insight into what kind of competition is out there. It also allowed her to gain experience at a high profile event that featured cameras, announcers and scoreboards, which tested her mental strength.
She’s now weighing her options and is hasn’t ruled out attending the World Archery Field Championships being held August 14-19 in Val d’Isere, France. Of course this event would differ greatly from her recent trip to Las Vegas.
“Field archery is unlike indoor target archery. Indoors, you’re pretty much shooting at a consistent range whereas field archery features a similar mentality to someone who golfs,” she said. “I shoot uphill, downhill, through different obstacles and from different distances all while hiking. So in addition to being accurate, you need to be in shape.
“You also have to be mentally prepared for these types of events,” Turnbull continued. “I’m 46-years-old and I realize deep down I want to do well, but I know this doesn’t define me and that gives me a different approach going into these events. In Vegas, the other members, who were younger than I was, were a lot more nervous and they were putting a lot of pressure on themselves to perform well. I knew when I left that event, my family was still going to love me so that allowed me to be more of a cheerleader for the younger team members, hoping it would settle them down.”
Turnbull is currently a member of four archery clubs around the province. She also has a coach, who she actually communicates with via the Internet. Turnbull uploads videos of her practice which is viewed and critiqued by her coach. She also has a personal trainer who handles the fitness side of the sport.
She points out archery doesn’t have to be competitive and many club members participate solely on a recreational basis. Many families participate by simply having fun and shooting at targets.
Turnbull uses a variety of ranges for practice. She can also shoot in her basement and uses the new range setup at Hunt Outdoors.
“I can still compete and I still want to compete,” said Turnbull. “We have people competing right now at age 56. As you get older, you have to listen to your body a lot more. I can’t go out and shoot 1,000 arrows like I could a few years ago. I have to know when it’s time to stop and say I’ve had enough. As long as I do that and still feel good, I’m happy.”
