Vancouver athletes dominate figure skating

FERNIE – Vancouver skaters dominated the figure skating Winter Games held last weekend at Fernie Memorial Arena. Five out of twelve medalists were from Vancouver and most of the other medalists were also coming from nearby areas such as Burnaby or Richmond.

The competition hosted some of the most talented skaters in British Columbia in both the pre-novice and juvenile categories.

Kai-Jing Leong, winner of the most competitive category, the women pre-novice, said she was quite happy about her last performance as pre-novice at the Winter Games.

“Finishing and feeling good about it” is how she described her experience on the ice.

Kai-Jing, now 14, said she is ready to move on and looks forward to competing in the novice category next year.

The gold medalist for the women pre-novice is Kai-Jing Leong from Burnaby, followed by silver medalist Tianna Brammer from Richmond and bronze medalist Julie Gordon from Vancouver.

In the men pre-novice, Shane Firus from North Vancouver won gold, Gordon Graeme from Osoyoos won silver and Troy Shindle from Burnaby won bronze.

In the juvenile women category, Melissa Nguyen from Vancouver won gold, Belvina Mao from Richmond won silver and Cacien Dalmer from Burnaby won Bronze.

In the juvenile men category, Mitchell Gordon from Vancouver won gold, Jordan Ju from Maple Ridge won silver and Adonis Wond from Vancouver won bronze.

Caroline Faucher: BC Games News Service

Medals Awarded To Table Tennis Competitors

by Alexa Laing-Moore

The Mount Baker School gym was filled with smiling faces on Sunday February 24^th as athletes were presented with bronze, silver and gold medals for Table Tennis. There were seven categories to which medals were awarded: male team, female team, mixed doubles, male doubles, female doubles, male singles and female singles.

Collin Johnston, Director for the Kimberly-Cranbrook 2008 Winter Games, presented the bronze medal. Laurie Reed, another director, gave out the silver medal. The honour of presenting the gold medal went to Bruce Mollison, Councillor for the City of Cranbrook and director of the games.

Athletes from the Fraser Valley and Caribou were awarded bronze medals for the male team. Silver went to a group of boys from the Fraser Valley Delta. The winners of the gold medal were from Squamish. Medals were the given to the female teams. In third place were athletes from the Fraser Valley and Caribou. The girls from Squamish were awarded silver, with gold going to the Fraser River Delta teammates.

Next in line were the mixed doubles. Liang, So, So and Tang walked away with bronze, while Jaeckle and Steinbach were presented with silver. Gold was then given to Wu and Fu.

The winners of the bronze medal for male doubles were Chan, Liu, Liang and Shou. The silver medal went to Wu and Ng. Gold went to Tang and Liang. Ming, Lam, Wang and Fu received the bronze medals for female doubles. Fu and Lee won silver and So and So were presented with gold.

For female singles, Tiffany So and Leanne Lee were awarded bronze medals. Koryn Steinbach won silver and Shirley Fu walked away with the gold medal. Yuan Ping Liang and Chao Liang came in at third place in male singles, while Kevin Tang took the silver. Lastly, Teddy Wu was presented with the gold medal.

Closing Ceremonies Say Goodbye to 1,500+ Athletes

The athletes, parents, coaches, volunteers, dignitaries and fans joined together for one final party at the Rec Plex in Cranbrook, to close out the Kimberley-Cranbrook 2008 BC Winter Games.

The athletes enjoyed a twenty minute photo display of their team mates performing over the weekend. President of Kimberley-Cranbrook BC Winter Games, Rob McIntyre, called it “the cast of a thousand faces” and added, “The games are over, but the memories start from here.”

Rob McIntyre then gave the “Top 10 Reasons why the BC Winter Games was a success:”

10. Weather
9. Media
8. Friends of the Games Funding
7. City of Kimberley, City of Cranbrook, School District 5 and 6
6. Corporate Sponsors
5. BC Government
4. Organizing Committee
3. Volunteers
2. Athletes
1. Province of BC.

Final words from Rob McIntyre “from all reports the 2008 Kimberley-Cranbrook BC Winter Games was a huge success!” and adds “The province of BC is the Best Place on Earth!”

The BC Winter Games flag was then handed off to the director of protocol for The City of Kelowna for the BC Summer Games, July 24 – 27th , 2008.

Nancy Silzer: BC Winter Games News Service

Squash Medal Highlights

Lindsey Seginson from Victoria won the Gold Medal in Girls Squash at the BC Winter Games in Cranbrook this morning. Winning the Gold after what she said was not too hard of a match, but still a good game.

Lindsey who has played for about 4 years said that being a left handed player definitely gave her an advantage in the matches this weekend! Training 3-4 times a week and playing in lots of tournaments was also helpful and will be helpful to get to the nationals.

Lindsey said playing new people and being ready for anything “along with the Gold Medal" is what she is taking away from the BC Winter Games. All the fun she has had has overshadowed the memory of how cold it was waiting outsidefor the opening ceremonies!

Sean Jackman from Campbell River won the Bronze medal in Boys Squash at the BC Winter Games in Cranbrook this morning. Jackman said the bronze game was a good one but the one he lost for gold was even better.

Sean said " I have been playing for 4 ½ year looking forward to morepractice and it is time to start working towards the Nationals in April"

The BC Winter Games have been lots of fun and he said he had a great time.

Archery competition a terrrific success

In the Sunday finals, two gold medalists from the cumulative events repeated as winners. Erin Liebich from Squamish capped her impressive gold medal showing from the two-day cumulative event in the recurve event with an another gold medal in the sighted recurve competition on Sunday.

Master of Ceremonies, Darren Brown, said that Liebich had achieved "an unbelievable score." Also repeating his gold medal performance was local archer Doug Terpsma, capping off a brilliant weekend with individual gold in Sunday's Male Compound category.

He was tested by close runner-up Edward Mackie from Prince George, who won silver. Spencer Gull from Prince George was the bronze winner. In the Female compound bow category, Shainne Buzuckievich from Maple Ridge won gold, with Shelby Reimer from South Okanagan winning silver and Cranbrook archer Shelby Reimer the bronze.

In the barebow recurve competition, Squamish archers, Nicholas Gulycz and Ethan Gaudry-Gardener won gold and silver respectively. Mathew Perks from Parksville won the bronze.

Eric Walker, Provincial Adviser for the British Columbia Archery Association, termed the Kimberley-Cranbrook BC Winter Games a "very well run event." He credited Elaine Johnson, the local archery chair from Cranbook, and her assistant chair, Vladimir Kopecky from Kimberley for the success of the three-day event.

The archery competition was staged at the Kimberley Tennis Club and was popular with spectators, many of whom wisely remembered to bring binoculars.

Don Rivers: BC Winter Games News Service

Alpine Skiing Medal Highlights

Fernie Ski Racer Wins Silver and Gold

With a time of 48.92, Hallie MacLachlan finished with a silver medal in the girls Kombi event after taking away the gold medal in the slalom race at this years BC Games in Kimberley.

Hallie and her coach, Rod Timm, have been training hard for the games. “I didn’t expect to do as well as I did,”she said.

Hallie’s next competition will be the Provincials at Grouse Mountain. From there, it will be off to the Whistler Cup where she will be competing against athletes from all over the world.

Grouse Beats Whistler at BC Games

Austin Llewellyn finished nearly a full second ahead of Brodie Seger andBryan Cadman in the boys Kombi event at this years downhill ski competition at the BC Games in Kimberley. Although Austin races for the Grouse Mountain Tyee team, he regularly practices with Brodie and Bryan who train with the Whistler team. The three boys are friendly rivals and are used to competing with each other.

“As I was coming down the last few gates, I thought ‘wow’ this is the est run of my life,” said Austin. He also said he was glad to see Brodie and Bryan up on the podium with him. The three of them have been practicing every weekend for this event. They’re all looking forward to competing again at the Provincials in March.

Finish for Annmore Local at BC Games

After a disappointing start, Bryan Cadman, 13, finished with a bronze medal in the Kombi event at this years downhill ski competition at the BC Games inKimberley. Bryan Cadman has had a string of 4th place finishes and was pleased to make it into the top three on Sunday.

Bryan is looking forward to competing in the Whistler Cup where he will be competing against athletes from all over the world. He thanks his coaches, Karen Brady and Paul McLeese, for their support and encouragement.

Fraser River Delta rings up Gold

Fraser River Delta squared up against their neighbours and rivals Fraser Valley in the final game of the BC Winter Games ringette tournament. A fiercely contested gold medal game where the lead bounced back and forth.

Fraser River Delta managed to edge out Frazer Valley and secure the gold medal 4-3. Fraser Valley were worthy silver medal winners. Both teams played exceptionally well in this fast exciting game which had the spectators on the edge of their seats.

No one could ask for more support than the parents who dressed up in orange garbage bags to support of the Fraser River Delta girls who were playing wearing their orange, zone 4 colours!

With Fraser River Delta trailing 2-3 they scored a goal to tie the game with justover four minutes left of the game. Both teams were fighting for the medal when, with only one minute and 34 seconds on the clock, Melissa Woodley from Fraser River Delta, fired the winning shot into the net.

Head coach, Harold Bakke from Delta was ecstatic over the win. He said "It was so sweet to win the gold. This was a once in a life time experience for the girls and they fought hard to win. Fraser Valley played a fantastic game and itis a tough loss for them but that makes it even sweeter for us!!"

The end of an exciting tournament where the girls played well and conducted themselves impeccably. Thank you to the officials and volunteers who made the tournament possible.