“This was an amazing experience,” was the way Jennifer Lizuck of Canora described the trip she took with her daughter, Natalie Kosar, to Africa for the NASP (National Archery in Schools Program), World Championships, held from July 25-27 in Windhoek, Namibia.
Sixteen–year-old Natalie, the daughter of Scott Kosar, was part of the 31-member Canadian team. Lizuck said the only other Saskatchewan team member was a boy from Unity.
In the final standings, Canada placed second behind the host country of Namibia.
“It was a team competition with individual archers being recognized for exceptional shooting, including the highest score for each category,” said Lizuck. “The young fellow from Unity took multiple medals.”
Lizuck said Natalie has been involved in archery ever since she was a Grade 4 student at Canora Junior Elementary School, the minimum age required to join NASP. She was the high school girls provincial champion in 2025, and the national champion in 2024.
According to naspschools.org, NASP IS “aimed at improving educational performance among students in Grades 4 – 12. Students learn focus, self-control, discipline, patience, and the life lessons required to be successful in the classroom and in life.”
For Kosar and Lizuck, NASP also gave them the opportunity to broaden their horizons.
“We spent 21 days in South Africa,” said Lizuck. “We toured the local area as well a few places in the nearby vicinity. We took several tours, one being a morning ocean tour to see whales and dolphins.”
For the most part, tours were used as team building exercises for Team Canada.
“We were in Windhoek for 10 days, then travelled to the other side of South Africa for a hunting safari.”
Lizuck said even though Namibia shares its southern border with South Africa, from what they saw, the two countries are actually quite different.
“Namibia is mostly sand, and then once we travelled over to South Africa, it was quite mountainous with lots of trees.”
