CANMORE – Bow Valley athletes hauled in 29 medals (20 individual, nine team) with five gold, 13 silver, and 11 bronze at the 2020 Alberta Winter Games (Feb. 15-17) in Airdrie and Canmore.
Fielding athletes in seven events, Banff, Canmore and MD of Bighorn athletes helped to power Zone 2 to second overall in the medal standings with 74 (26 gold, 27 silver, 21 bronze). Zone 3 (Calgary) was first overall in the medal standings with 105 (40 gold, 35 silver, 30 bronze) and Zone 6 (Edmonton) was third overall with 67 (21 gold, 25 silver, 21 bronze).
Zone 2 also won the Spirit of Sportsman Award following the games, which is given to the zone “best demonstrating fair play, sportsmanship, team spirit and cooperation on and off the field of play.”
Here are a few highlights:
Cross-country skiing
Local skiers were big winners at the 2020 Alberta Winter Games, winning 19 combined medals (13 individual, six team) to wrap up the three-day (Feb. 15-17) sporting event at the Canmore Nordic Centre.
Canmore's Sabine Comeau, 14, was the standout local athlete at the games, winning two gold medals (U16 female sprint and relay) and a silver (classic).
"I think it's definitely one of my top performances," Comeau said.
Isabel McLurg, Theo Fradette and Kaisa Lemyre also brought in three medals each.
McLurg won gold (U16 female relay), silver (sprint), and bronze (classic), Fradette won bronze three times (sprint, classic, U16 male relay), and Lemyre won three silver medals (U14 female relay, sprint, classic).
"It feels really good to know that you're up there, especially with Sabine," McLurg said.
Individual results:
Teo Wadsworth (silver, U14 male classic), Tasmin Munro (bronze, U14 female sprint), Jordy Munro (silver, U12 male sprint), Lincoln Meekins (bronze, U12 male sprint), and Gabrielle Tessier (bronze, U12 female sprint).
Team relay results:
In U16 female, the Blackbucks, consisting of Sabine Comeau, Isabel McLurg and Heidi Bryant won gold.
Following a pair of fourth-place finishes on Saturday and Sunday in individual races, Bryant was relieved to have finally stepped on the podium after Monday’s relay.
“It feels so good, I've been really annoyed that I was just so close, but yeah, right now it feels really great," Bryant said.
The Pronghorns (Kaisa Lemyre, Charlotte Wilson and Aria Grandi) won silver in U14 female, and Springbok (Tasmin Munro, Lucia Baergen and Jewel Weighell) won bronze.
The Blue Wildebeasts (Teo Wadsworth, Ben Field and Torin Comeau) won silver in U14 male.
The Greyhounds (Theo Fradette, Felix Clement and Kai Perron) won bronze in the U16 male.
In the U12 mixed relay, the Cheetahs (Lincoln Meekins, Gabrielle Tessier, Sonija Rapcewicz and Jordy Munro) won silver.
Biathlon
Shooting on home soil, local biathletes brought in five medals at the 2020 Alberta Winter Games.
Ben Dreger (gold, Dev. 2 boys individual), Larix Hallet (gold, air rifle 2 male sprint; silver, air rifle 2 mass start), Rylan Chevalier (silver, air rifle 2 male sprint), and Fraser Gleig (bronze, Dev. 1 male mass start).
It was Gleig's first-ever AWG medal with the 13-year-old shooting 11/15 in prone during Sunday’s windy Dev.1 boys (U14) mass start.
“[Shooting] was quite hard and I had to adjust for the wind, but it went pretty well, I think,” Gleig said. “I knew I couldn’t catch up to the people in first and second, so I just tried to keep out in front of the people behind me.”
Gymnastics
Canmore Illusions gymnast Ellie Sucharda stepped on the podium twice at the 2020 Alberta Winter Games (AWG) in Airdrie.
Sucharda won gold in beam and bronze in bars at the Airdrie Edge Gymnastics Centre, and her teammate Kayden Crowe finished fourth on floor.
Sucharda, 13, has only been competing for three years and the AWG was the biggest competition she's been in, going up against the 11-17 age group.
"I was really proud of myself because it was so awesome to be there and to compete two days in a row, it was awesome," Sucharda said.
Illusions coach Jordana Drukarsh said it was an honour for the two Canmore athletes to compete at AWG.
"I knew that the competition was going to be challenging and especially this being their first winter games experience ... the fact that both Ellie and Kayden performed so well and in their first time doing a second day of competition exceeded all my expectations," Drukarsh said.
Futsal
Both the Zone 2 male and female futsal teams took home silver at the Alberta Winter Games.
On the female squad was Canmore’s Mary Huggill, and three local boys competed on the male team (Asher Betts, Alex Bohnet and Johann Bohard).
Hockey
The Zone 2 male hockey team won bronze after defeating Zone 4, 7-5, on Monday.
Three locals were on the team (Leo Johnson, Tyler Deakos and Connor MacKenzie).
Speed Skating
Evan Beamish (fourth, 13-14 male team pursuit; 11th, 13-14 male individual) and Lili Wilz (fourth, 13-14 female team pursuit; fourth, 13-14 demale individual).
Figure Skating
Paige Domenico (fifth, juvenile women’s singles) and Kimberley Dearing (ninth, Star 6 women’s singles).
