The northwest’s senior athletes, representing Zone 10 at the B.C. Senior Games held in Burnaby Aug. 21 to 25, have returned home and they bring with them oodles of memories and a whole whack of medals.
Ninety seniors hailing from Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert, Terrace and Kitimat – out of a membership of 182 – travelled for the tournament, which also happened to be the 25th anniversary of the games.
Eleven participants and athletes from across the province, including five from Zone 10, have been with the games from the beginning, and celebrated their 25th games anniversary.
Betty Nordstrom, Mary Arneson, Dorothy Cheyne, and Bob Goodvin have been members for 25 consecutive years and Maxine Smallwood has competed in 25 consecutive games – 23 of those years in track and field events.
Smallwood and Goodvin brought home 11 medals in total in track and field and Nordstrom was a member of the gold winning five-pin bowling team.
“We did very well,” said Zone 10 president Bill Whitty.
Athletes competed in 14 of the 26 events available, bringing home a total of 71 individual medals – 32 gold, 17 silver, and 22 bronze, he said.
Archery saw Zone 10 win two gold, three silver; cribbage with four gold, two silver, two bronze; the bowling team of four won bronze; floor curling’s “B” team with bronze; golf with five gold, two silver; horseshoes with four gold, one silver; swimming with three golf, two silver, three bronze; track and field two gold, seven silver, eight bronze; whist winning gold; and five-pin bowling’s “A” team taking gold, plus three other gold medals.
There were also six Zone 10 members who paddled for other zones in dragon boat racing.
Next year’s games will be held in Kamloops from Aug. 20 to 24.
“Zone 10 is looking forward to participating and having an even better result,” said Whitty.
Zone 10 is thinking about starting to practice pickleball, he said. It’s a new sport similar to table tennis that has been gaining traction and was popular at the games.
