The competitions in Kamloops for the 2018 B.C. Winter Games wrapped up on Sunday, Feb. 25, seeing one of the largest annual gatherings of youth athletes in the province come to a close for another year.
Over 1,200 competitors from across the province vied for a spot atop the podium from Feb. 22-25. Individual and team events were held as part of the Games, giving athletes a chance to show their skills solo or alongside other top competitors from their region.
Celebrating their 29th year in 2018, the B.C. Winter Games have a long history of showcasing athletic excellence in the province. A total of 18 sports are included in the competitions, including four events for disabled athletes. While many of the events are typical of a winter sports competition, such as skiing, skating and curling, there were also competitions in basketball, diving, archery and martial arts.
Each participant or team, depending on the event, competes for one of eight geographic zones which divide the province.
At least 20 athletes from Salmon Arm traveled to Kamloops over the weekend to compete as part of the Okanagan regional team. The hometown was done proud as several locals scored podium spots in both individual and team events across the weekend.
Local competitors had a strong showing in many of the cross-country skiing categories over the weekend.
Trond May and Sophia van Varseveld were a part of the first-place 2km mixed relay team, with Lys Milne on the silver medal team and Julianne Moore of Salmon Arm skiing with the bronze medal team in that event as well.
Not content to bring home just one medal, Milne, May, Moore and van Varseveld also made headway in their individual competitions. Milne placed first in the juvenile girls 500m individual sprint and second in the 5km interval race while van Varseveld took third spot on the podium for the same events. Moore took home the gold medal for the midget girls 3.5km interval race as well as silver for the 500m individual sprint. Isabelle Wilkie of Salmon Arm also took home a bronze medal for the midget girls 3.5km interval race.
In the boys individual skiing events Jacob Hepburn of Salmon Arm brought home the bronze medal in the midget boys 3.5km interval race while Trond May also took home a bronze in the juvenile boys 500 metre individual sprint.
Samantha Vukadinovic and Zara Bucher from Enderby joined their fellow members of the Larch Hills Nordic Ski Club at the Games and also came out with medal wins. Vukadinovic won the bronze medal in the 500m individual sprint event while Bucher had a gold medal finish in the midget girls 500m individual sprint event and a silver in the 3.5km interval race.
On the speed-skating track Aila Norlin and Laura Hall both won silver medals as part of the 300-metre relay events, with Norlin competing in the U14 division while Hall skated as part of the U16 team. Hall placed second in three of her individual events as well, winning silver medals in the U16 1000m, 1500m and 3000m speed-skating races.
Local ringette players Phoebe Barnes, Delaney Perry, Sydney Decker and Sadi Weed all scored themselves a bronze medal as a part of the girl’s ringette team.
Dawson Lewis took careful aim at the podium during two separate archery competitions, hitting the bulls-eye on a silver medal in the match-play girls compound archery competition as well as snagging a bronze in the girls two-day aggregate compound archery competition.
