Athletes from throughout Surrey and White Rock returned home from Kamloops last weekend as a more well-decorated group than they left, after scoring a plenty of podium finishes at the BC Winter Games.
The youth competition – which was held over four days and featured more than 1,200 athletes from across the province – wrapped up Sunday, and saw local athletes win medals in events ranging from badminton and figure skating to gymnastics and skiing.
Among the individual medal winners were Annansia Aggarwal, who won gold in single girls badminton while competing for Zone 4 (Fraser River); Maho Harada, who claimed silver in figure skating’s pre-novice women’s division;
Harada said she was surprised by the silver.
“I have a new jump, the triple-lutz, that I am working on and I got clean on it so that helped,” she told Black Press.
Elsewhere at the Games, Peter Velonas took home the gold medal in judo, in the Under-38 kg competition, and on the slopes, Surrey freestyle skier Emilia Oziewicz won a silver medal in the U14 girls slopestyle event.
Surrey athletes fared exceptionally well in gymnastics, with Trenton Oberndorf winning gold on floor and silver in vault; Claire Pakulak winning silver on beam and uneven bars and bronze in vault; and Brooke Miller winning a silver medal in vault and bronze on beam.
Success came in the pool, too, as local divers reached the podium. Madeline Green won two silver medals – on both the one- and three-metre boards – while Carter Baker and Taylor Pai each won silver, too, in their respective one-metre competitions. Pai also added a second silver medal on the three-metre board.
Surrey athletes earned medals in a handful of team competitions, as well. The Fraser River zone’s mixed badminton team won silver – while the Fraser Valley zone, which also featured Surrey athletes, placed fifth – and the Fraser River team also won bronze in biathlon, in the boys team relay event.
Fraser River teams also captured gold in gymnastics – in a Jo7/08 team event – as well as in speedskating’s U16 3,000-m mixed relay. A Zone 4 team also won bronze in mixed judo as well as mixed synchro diving, while the zone’s ringette squad brought home silver.
The ringette squad featured co-captain Grace Kemp and goaltender Jayden Sawada, both of whom are Earl Marriott Secondary students.
– with files from Bala Yogesh
