NWT archer wins silver ulu despite mid-match food poisoning
Em Gilmour delivered a heroic performance for Team NT on Friday to win a silver archery ulu despite persistent bouts of apparent food poisoning.
Gilmour’s sickness began overnight but she persevered through her day-long individual barebow archery contest, at one point racing away from the field of play to vomit even as her shot clock ticked down.
The 12-year-old only narrowly missed out on gold, eventually losing to Alberta North’s Mattea Visser, who shot almost faultlessly on Friday.
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“I had to go over to the garbage can over there and throw up during the two minutes that I had to shoot,” said Gilmour, somewhat recovered after the gold-ulu match, recalling the experience.
“I’m feeling really good, besides today. It’s been really fun,” she added, having also won mixed team gold with Josh Wedzin earlier in the week.
“But I could go to bed at any moment. I’m going to have a big nap, hope for the best, and tomorrow I should be better.”
Another Visser, Jorgie, deprived Hay River’s Julianne Groenewegen of compound gold in an extremely close contest.
Groenewegen, coming through the elimination bracket, was tasked with defeating Visser twice back-to-back to earn gold.
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Having won the first contest to set up a decider, Groenewegen entered the final end tied 107-107 with Visser. However, the Alberta North athlete ultimately prevailed 135-133.