Local athletes helped Team Fraser Valley (Zone 3) run away with the overall medal title at the B.C. Winter Games.
Forty-four competitors from Langley, Fort Langley and Aldergrove helped win 30 gold, 33 silver and 41 bronze medals at the Games, which ran from Feb. 20 to 23.
The Games were staged primarily in Mission and Abbotsford, with a few other venues around the Lower Mainland — including the Walnut Grove Aquatic Centre — also used for the competition.
Vancouver-Squamish (Zone 5) won the most gold medals with 33 but the Fraser Valley had more total medals, with 104 medals compared to Vancouver-Squamish’s 81.
One of the top local performances was delivered by speed skater William Park, who won a total of six gold medals.
Park, who was competing in the U14 division, and won all of his events: the 400m, the 200m pursuit, the 3000m and the super 1500m final. He also won a team gold in the 2000m relay.
Another top performance came from diver Kurt Breure, who won a pair of silver medals in the 1m and 3m boys Group B divisions despite competing with a broken thumb, which he suffered two weeks ago.
Ben Strybos won two medals in gymnastics, taking gold on the horizontal bar and silver on the parallel bars in category 1.
Jessie Novotny won a pair of silver medals in the girls C group 1m and 3m diving competitions.
And Chandan Teja (kata boys intermediate); Mihir Budshah (kunite boys advanced 55kg+) and Brian Ma (kunite boys intermediate 55kg+) took bronze in their events.
Team medals:
Scottie Kryski and Joshua Desrosiers won bronze in curling.
Amy Potomak, Danika Pasqua and Sophia Christopherson won gold in hockey.
Jeremy Lohnes, Brian Ma, Mihir Budshah and Chandan Teja won silver in karate.
Ireland Bellsmith, Jessica Douglas, Tracie Fawcett, Kassidy Karras, Hailee McMillan, Hailey Nowotny, Rebecca Young, Shayln Campbell and Kate Dolinski won bronze in ringette.
William Park won gold in the 2000m speed skating relay.
Jack Kosterman, Joel Aukema and Tanner Jung won gold in wheelchair basketball.
Christopher Beugh, Karl Beugh, Christian Burton and Alexander Singh won bronze in Special Olympics basketball.
Four coaches also received medals for their efforts behind the bench or on the sidelines.
Taking gold were Sarah Beattie (hockey) and Mitch Kosterman (wheelchair basketball) while Shakiba Fadaie (karate) won silver and Jonathan Osers (gymnastics) won bronze with their respective teams.
