Athletes from this area excelled at the Western Canada Summer Games Aug. 7-16 in Wood Buffalo, Alberta.
In total, 43 athletes from Surrey, three from White Rock and another five from North Delta participated in the Games. Team BC topped the medal standings with 280 medals, 134 of them gold. Of the 266 gold medals awarded, slightly more than half were won by athletes from British Columbia.
Numerous local athletes, most in the 16-19 age bracket, found themselves on the podium and contributing the Team BC’s medal count. They were:
* Treyson Cerrato, 14, of South Surrey was a member of the male gymnastics team which won the overall gold medal.
* Team BC won the gold medal in male baseball, defeating Saskatchewan 7-3 in the gold medal game. Members of the team included 15-year-olds Trent King, Ethan Gray and Damiano Palmegiani, and 16-year-olds Dawson Gray and Justin Olic. All are from Surrey.
* Qingzi Ouyang of Delta and Janna Wong and James Ho of Surrey were members of the gold medal team in team badminton. Team BC placed second among the seven teams in the round robin, losing only to Alberta by a 7-2 score. BC reversed the result in the gold medal match, winning 6-2.
* Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary student Hannah Lee, 15, easily won the gold medal in the female golf individual competition. Lee was five strokes better than Tiffany Kong, also from British Columbia. Lee, Long and Alisha Lau combined to win the team gold medal for B.C.
* Local players were prominent on the Team BC squad which won the gold medal in female soccer.
Team BC won all three games in the tournament, finishing atop their group in the round robin with a 15-0 win over the Northwest Territory and a 4-0 victory over Saskatchewan. Team BC topped Manitoba 3-1 in the gold medal match. Local players included Priya Gillan, 15, and Jessica Williams, 16, of White Rock, Danielle Steer, 16, of South Surrey, Brittany Costa, 16, of North Delta and Harneet Dadrao, 16, of Surrey.
* Team BC defeated Alberta 11-0 in the gold medal game of the female softball tournament. They were 8-1 in the triple round robin, losing only to Manitoba by a 7-5 score. Team members included Maria Palegiani, Emily Manhao, Katie Humhej and Shaelyn Ogilvie of Surrey, and Michaela Moore of Cloverdale.
* Two Delta swimmers were among the medalists in para sport swimming. Aimee Brennan won a gold medal in the female 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley races. Brennan, 14, also won silver medals in the 100m freestyle, 100m back stroke and 100m breast stroke events.
In the para sport male category, Aidan McDonough won a silver medal in the 100m breast stroke, as well as bronze medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m back stroke, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.
* Track and field produced several medals for local athletes.
Brent Reston of North Delta won a gold medal in the male javelin, his throw of 59.78m more than three metres further than his nearest rival.
Valda Kabia of Ocean Athletics won silver medals in both the 100m and 200m female sprints. Her time of 12.21 seconds in the 100m bettered her personal best of 12.36.
Chelsea Ribeiro of Surrey also won silver, placing second in the female 200m steeplechase.
Michael Milic of North Delta won three medals in the triathlon. He was the runner-up in the male individual race, winning a silver medal. He won gold medals in the team male and team mix relays.
* Team BC fell 1-0 to Alberta in the gold medal match of male soccer. Four Surrey athletes were on the team, including Daniel Lee, 15, and 16-year-olds Nicholas Fussell, Charandeep Rangi, and Jorawa Saran.
* Darby Dunn of Surrey and Kelowna’s Quinci Birker won gold in female beach volleyball by sweeping Alberta 21-12, 21-15 in the final.
The Dunn-Birker connection was also good for a medal in the male tournament. Devon Dunn teamed up with Liam Birker to win a silver medal in male beach volleyball. The two 20-year-olds lost to a duo from Calgary in the gold medal game scores of 21-13, 21-19.
* Five locals helped Team BC to gold in female indoor volleyball. Cara Keturakis, Rebecca Garner, Gabrielle Attieh and Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey and Tamara Clarke of North Delta were on the provincial team which swept Alberta in the gold medal match by scores of 25-22, 25-19 and 25-17.
Team BC settled for the silver medal in the male tournament, falling 25-20, 25-23, 27-25 to Alberta in the final. Local members of the team included Tyson Smith of White Rock, and Perry Ni, Braden Jones, Eric Lee and Jordan Deshane of Surrey.
