Jousting competition takes Agribition back to the middle ages

A medieval sport once again makes its way to the Canadian Western Agribition.

Jousting returns for a third year to the agricultural showcase and Bill Meyer, general manager of the Knights of Valour, said the Regina crowd is something special.

“They’ve been really fantastic. They really get into it, they got to see a lot of action last year,” Meyer said. “They got to see a lot of catastrophic hits.”

The full contact tournament, which is the last one of the jousting season for the Knights of Valour, will feature six jousters.

Tyler Bekolay joined the troupe in 2012 after seeing the jousters at a local renaissance fair in his hometown of Ottawa, Ont.

“A little bit of stupidity helps, a high pain tolerance helps,” Bekolay said, describing what drove him to want to be a jouster. “I’m a little bit of an adrenaline junkie so I like the rush of charging headlong against another opponent.”

Bekolay said the impact of getting hit by a lance is like running a car into a brick wall.

“There’s been time where I’ve been hit and you don’t even realize what happened until you’re on your back on the ground six feet below.”

The tournament takes place Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Agribition runs until Nov. 26.