Duenas putting confidence on target
Cripsin Duenas is not short on confidence. It’s a good thing too because he knows he’ll need it for a plane ticket to London 2012.
Canada has qualified one spot for the London Games in archery right now and Duenas is hungry for it.
“I can’t have any doubt in my mind,” said the 2008 Olympian during his third Series of Excellence conference. “I have to be relentless. … If I just do what I always do, everything should be fine.”
After his Olympic debut performance in Beijing, the North York, Ont. native said his learning experience there was invaluable — especially in a sport that demands calm nerves in the middle of unavoidable and sometimes distracting Olympic energy.
“To march in with Team Canada, to live the Olympic village life, to be fully immersed in the pinnacle of the athletics world … Now I know what that feels like,” said Duenas, 25.
“I know what to expect. I can go to (London) and not to be surprised about anything. … If I start to feel pressure, I just take in everything around me — my entire peripheral — and that calms me down.”
Canada can send three men and three women to London in the sport of archery. Final qualification for archery will happen in late May.
Right now, though, Duenas is just eager to take whatever steps necessary to achieve an Olympic medal in a sport he says is starting to make a name for itself in this country.
“I have to know that I am the best; To not doubt that I’m going to go out on the archery field and win.”
