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'This will be excellent for sports tourism:' Archery Canada shoots for a new permanent home in Cambridge

The City of Cambridge and Archery Canada are looking to hit the mark with a new, indoor facility in Blair
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Team Canada's Brian Maxwell fires his arrow at a target down the range at the Moyer's Landing temporary facility.

Olympians take to the field as Archery Canada is getting all settled at their new facility in Blair, at Moyer’s Landing. 

The national team have been practicing here in Cambridge since 2020 and are currently training at a temporary range next to the Fountain Street park. 

Mayor Kathryn McGarry is thrilled to have Archery Canada here in the city and is looking forward to see a permanent, indoor facility built nearby. 

“It's a very exciting piece of the puzzle when it comes to revamping and providing more sport and recreation activities for Cambridge,” said McGarry. 

The new facility is still in the planning stages, but that's not stopping some of the athletes that use the current range from getting excited. 

BC native Brian Maxwell, who is an archer for Team Canada, said he can’t wait for there to be a more central location for the team to practice and is happy it’s going to be in such a beautiful place like Cambridge. 

Team Canada started training in Cambridge before the Tokyo Olympics at the ComDev indoor soccer park and a relationship formed, giving Cambridge the opportunity to host the team at the Blair location. 

“It's been a huge asset for the national team program to have access to a facility that's dedicated for their use. It’s kind of exciting that this partnership with the city has been a really good way to get more of a focus on archery,” said Karl Balisch, executive director of Archery Canada. 

Team Canada will also be looking to set up a few different community programs to help get locals involved in the sport. 

They have a summer camp that sold out four weeks worth of programs. They will train campers at Hespeler Arena and then head down to the Moyer’s landing facility to meet some of the athletes from team Canada. 

With access to some of the best archers in the country, McGarry thinks this has become a pivotal moment for sports tourism in the city and adds to the growing list of activities the community can enjoy. 

“We have a great lineup of things to offer and this really just adds to our goal to be a world class destination for sport,” she said. 

The head coach of team Canada Shawn Riggs was born and raised in Kitchener and knows what this means for the national team but also the city of Cambridge. 

Riggs thinks this is the perfect location, being close to the universities and the 401, team Canada has finally found a home. 

“Having a centralized place to train is not something we've had for a number of years. We've always been guests somewhere,” said Riggs. 

With their own dedicated space they don’t have to worry about working around others schedules or worry about making too much noise due to the excessive amount of arrows being shot, said Riggs.

McGarry thinks the city needs more ventures like bringing in a national sports team to continue to grow the city and Archery Canada is a step in the right direction.

“With this coming to Cambridge is really proof that we are an excellent location and we are an excellent municipality to bring these kinds of new, exciting adventures to,” said McGarry.