Over 4,000 people were exposed to fun and friendship at this year’s 55+ BC Games in Kelowna, more than 750 of them from Zone 8, which includes Salmon Arm, Sicamous, Canoe, Celista, Anglemont, Chase, Blind Bay and Sorrento.
• Curling
Team Merwin regained the 65+ Mixed Curling Championship. Teammates Jane and Larry Stephenson, and Janny and Wayne Merwin, all from Blind Bay, completed an undefeated four-game, partial round robin. They qualified for the gold game against another 4-0 team, Team Devlin from Trail.
The final game was a tough battle with Team Merwin winning 6-4. It was the third year in a row that these two teams fought it out in the finals. Team Merwin won in 2017 in Vernon to qualify for the Canada Summer Games in which they won a silver medal. In 2018, Team Devlin avenged their previous year’s defeat.
Team Merwin will now qualify to play in next year’s Canada Summer Games in Kamloops.
Also in curling, in Men & Women, 55-64, Wayne Mertens from Salmon Arm joined teammates from Kamloops to take bronze.
• Golf
In Men 85+ Div B, 17.1 – 36.4 index, low net, Mathew Schmidt from Salmon Arm took gold.
• Hockey
In Men’s 75+, Howard Cockwill of Salmon Arm joined teammates from the Fraser Valley to earn a bronze medal.
• Horseshoes
In Men Singles 65+, 30′, Group E, Ted Honkala of Salmon Arm took gold.
In Women Singles, 55+, 30′, Group B, Salmon Arm’s Cindy Krczizanowski claimed silver.
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• Lawn Bowling
In Women’s 70+, Women’s Pairs, Helen Bettles of Salmon Arm paired with Alice Tennant of Kamloops to take silver.
• Pickleball
Eighteen participants came from the Shuswap, with Kathy Nielsen and Laura Thibault taking bronze in the 3.5 rating, Darcy Kerr and Keith Brown silver in 3.5, Judith Heunis and Kevin Scollen bronze in 4.5, Rick Fischer and Ada Durkin Silver in 3.0 and Ann McGrath gold in 4.0 singles.
• Slopitch
In Men & Women 55+ mixed, Wes Sandy of Salmon Arm was a member of the gold medal-winning Kamloops Fox n Hounds.
• Soccer
In the Women 55+ category, the Okanagan Crunch claimed bronze with players Tricia Martin, Leah Foreman, Betty Turko and Martha Wickett from Salmon Arm, along with Felicia O’Gorman and Sue Barss from Coldstream, Judith Leon-Gallardo and Shelly Johnston from Vernon, Dana Hornibook, Jess Hunt and Kim Guss from Kelowna and Lynn Pendlebury from Brentwood Bay.
In Men 60+, the Okanagan Legends team took gold with one Salmon Arm player, Nigel Clack, along with teammates from Vernon, Kelowna and West Kelowna.
In Men 55+, Kamloops United, with David Howes from Salmon Arm and Steve Murphy from Chase, along with teammates from Kamloops and Merritt, took silver.
In Men 65+, Okanagan Diehards with Frank Cseke from Salmon Arm and his teammates from the Okanagan took bronze.
• Swimming
Rudi Ingenhorst of Salmon Arm struck up the medals in the 70-74 category with gold in 25m backstroke, silver in 100m, silver in 25m breaststroke, and silver in 50m backstroke.
• Table Tennis
Bronze in the Men 55-59 Doubles, Competitive, went to Wilf Pauls of Enderby and Jarvis Wice of Salmon Arm.
Gold in Men 70-74 Doubles, Recreational, went to Henry Gebauer and Doug Cole of Salmon Arm.
Bronze in Women 65-69 Doubles, Recreational, was claimed by Ann Nikmo from Salmon Arm, paired with Sandra Chapple from Fort St. John.
In the Men & Women 75+ Mixed Doubles, Recreational, silver went to Carole and Henry Gebauer from Salmon Arm
In Men and Women 65-69 Mixed Doubles, Recreational, Ann and Markku Nikmo from Salmon Arm claimed bronze.
Silver in Men 75+ Singles, Recreational, went to Peter Wessel of Salmon Arm.
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• Tennis
In Men & Women 60-64 Mixed Doubles, Debbie and Alan Harrison earned gold, and Alan took silver in 60-64 singles.
In Women 70-74 singles, Sue Ford took the silver medal.
In Men 80+ doubles, bronze went to Mick Ford of Salmon Arm and Paul Aulakh from Richmond and, in Men 80+ singles, Mick earned a bronze.
• Track & Field
In the Women 65-69 category, Yvonne Dibblee of Enderby brought home a gold in discus, three silver medals in shot put, weight throw and hammer throw, plus a bronze in javelin.
In Men 55-59, 4 x 100 metre relay, silver went to Rob Kurta of Salmon Arm, along with Rob Smith of Kelowna, Stephen Joyce of Coldstream and Gary Pointer of Vernon.
For all the results of the Games which ran from Sept. 10 to 14, go to https://www.55plusbcgames.org and click on Results.
