Ben Chow of Surrey focuses on the ball during the Canada Summer Games. Chow won a gold medal in beach volleyball.

Ben Chow of Surrey focuses on the ball during the Canada Summer Games. Chow won a gold medal in beach volleyball.

Kim leads Team BC to golfing gold

Many medals for local athletes at the Canada Summer Games

Taylor Kim has led Team BC to a pair of gold medals in the female golf competition at the Canada Summer Gamaes in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

The 18 year-old from Surrey easily won the individual competition, snaring first place and a gold medal with a five-stroke margin over the runner-up. Kim, a member of the Team Canada Development squad, finished at five-under par over the four rounds, shooting 72-73-76-71. She had the low score in three rounds, and finished with a two-under-par 71 on the final day that included four birdies and was the best round of the tournament.

“It feels great to win,” said Kim following her round. “I felt really confident coming into today and I knew I could swing really well so I just trusted myself. From the start I felt confident that I could win the gold.”

Paced by Kim’s scores, Team BC easily won the gold in team competition, finishing 17 strokes ahead of runner-up Quebec. Alix Kong, 17, of West Vancouver and Naomi Ko, 15, of Colwood were the other Team BC members.

“I’m really happy for all of my teammates,” said Kim. “Naomi and Alix played great this week and we did what we needed to do to win. Rob and our manager Michaela really helped us a lot as well.”

Other local athletes at the games:

 

ATHLETICS

Django Lovett of Surrey won the gold medal in the high jump. He tied with Al Mansaray of Alberta at 2.14m, but won a tiebreaker.

Sam Kennedy, a graduate Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary, won the silver medal in the women’s hammer throw.

Adam Paul-Morris, 20, shared a silver medal. He ran for Team BC in the men’s 4x400m relay Friday night. Team BC qualified with the fastest time at 3:14.91 seconds, and despite a 3:09.30 in the final, finished second to Ontario.

Justin Kent won a bronze medal in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase Tuesday night. The Kwantlen Park Secondary graduate finished in 9:10.89, 12 seconds behind the winner.

Robbie Gallaugher, 22, also won a bronze medal. His leap of 7.17m left him behind only two of 21 competitors. Gallaugher, also a Lord Tweedsmuir grad, was part of the provincial team which placed eighth in the 4×100 relay Thursday night.

Riley Van Ryswyk, 19, placed fourth in the men’s pole vault, as did Kathryn Van Ryswyk, 18, in the women’s pole vault.

Serena Graf placed ninth in the women’s shot put with a toss of 11.8 metres.

 

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Ben Chow of Surrey and Coquitlam’s Dan Caverly dominated the competition to win the gold medal in men’s competition.

The Team BC duo didn’t lose a set until the gold medal match, where they topped Ontario 21-18, 15-51, 15-12. They swept five round robin and one playoff match in straight sets.

 

CYCLING

Kyle Buckowsky of Surrey placed 11th in the men’s road race Wednesday. His time of 3:23:43 was 12 minutes back of the winner. Buckowsky was also 16th among the 43 riders in the time trial on Monday, and 18th in Saturday’s criterium.

North Delta’s Trevor Pearson was 35th in the time trial, and 32nd in the criterium.

 

FENCING

Woojoo Kwon of Surrey was eliminated in the quarterfinal round of fencing’s female foil competition. After a 15-6 first-round win, the 14 year-old was eliminated by the same score in her second match.

She and partner Sonya Romashina placed fourth in the team competition, losing 20-17 to Ontario.

William Wang, 16, was also eliminated in the quarterfinal round of his competition, the male epee. After a 15-9 win in the round-of-16, he lost 15-11 in the quarterfinal. He was fourth in team competition with Surrey’s David Shorey as his teammate. They lost 20-9 to Alberta in the bronze medal match.

 

ROWING

Hillary Janssens teamed with Kelly Jackson of Richmond to win the gold medal in the female pair category. The Surrey athlete and Jackson won the six-team final Friday, their time of 7:30.95 was 23 seconds better than the second-fastest team.

Janssens also won gold as a member of Team BC in the eight with coxswain final. Team BC finished in 6:12.03, almost three second better than second-place Ontario.

 

SOCCER

Nicholas Pineda-Graham, 18, for Surrey was on the Team BC squad which won a silver medal. Team BC lost 2-0 to Quebec in the final.

Surrey Now Leader