Home with the hardware
Penticton’s Acacia Benn and Tyler Wall, members of the local KISU Swim Club, are pictured with medals they won at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg that ended on the weekend. Wall won nine medals and Benn captured five.
Sparked by a pair of Penticton KISU Swim Club members, B.C. accumulated a team record 146 medals at the Canada Summer Games that wrapped up on the weekend in Winnipeg.
Tyler Wall led all B.C. swimmers with nine medals and Acacia Benn racked up five as Team BC finished in second to Ontario with 212 medals and just ahead of third-place Quebec with 138.
B.C. notched 55 gold, 49 silver and 42 bronze medals in the two-week competition.
The previous mark for B.C. was 145, with the record broken in the final event of the Games as Team BC won gold in women’s softball for a fourth consecutive year.
Wall collected four gold, three silver and two bronze medals in swimming events. He garnered gold in 100-metre freestyle and as a member of the 4 x 200 freestyle relay team.
Benn won gold in the 200-metre backstroke, silver in the 200-metre medley and 5,000-metre open water, as well as two silver in relays.
Team BC won 52 medals in swimming (17 gold, 16 silver, 19 bronze).
After two weeks of celebrating excellence in sport, the 2017 Games came to a close with a memorable Closing Ceremony at Investors Group Field.
Titled “Grand Summer Party”, the ceremony celebrated both the Canada Games 50th anniversary and Canada 150 while highlighting the natural beauty of the host province and the vibrant culture of the city of Winnipeg.
Team BC athletes sang along to performances by Fred Penner and Brett Kissel, and celebrated as the women’s softball team was awarded their gold medals by the Governor General of Canada, the Right Honourable David Johnston.
North Vancouver’s 16-year-old swimming sensation Raben Dommann carried the British Columbia flag into the Closing Ceremony of the 2017 Canada Games today, proudly representing his sport of swimming, his province and his fellow athletes.
The Canada Games are a national multi-sport competition with participation from every province and territory in Canada. The Games are held every two years, alternating between winter and summer, with the 2019 Winter Games to be held in Red Deer, Alta.