Island sports scene promises to have international flavour in 2018
Using a hockey metaphor, each new year provides a fresh sheet of ice. Here are the top-10 sporting events, from an Island perspective, to look for in 2018:
WORLD JUNIOR HOCKEY: Victoria and Vancouver organizers will be hoping to rectify the embarrassing attendance woes that have plagued the current edition of the championship taking place in Buffalo, New York. The puck drops Dec. 26 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and Rogers Arena.
XXIII WINTER OLYMPICS: A generation that grew up skiing and boarding on Mount Washington is now being heard from on slopes around the world. Watch for an avalanche of athletes — including Spencer O’Brien, Cassie Sharpe and Darcy Sharpe — to roll out of the Comox Valley and into Pyeongchang, South Korea, from Feb. 9-25.
Fans can start getting into the winter sports vibe with the B.C. Scotties women’s curling championship today through Sunday at the Victoria Curling Club.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES: It is with the sports of summer, however, in which Island competitors have shone brightest historically. More than 40 of them, who are either from here or who train on the Island, will be on Canada’s team in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4-15 in what will be a useful halfway measuring stick to Tokyo 2020.
WORLD CUP: Canada hasn’t been to one since Island players Ian Bridge, George Pakos and Jamie Lowery played in 1986. But that hasn’t stopped this from being a Canadian ritual tribal dance as ethnic halls will again be full in a land of immigrants. This time, however, the Italian hall in Vic West and Dutch and Greek halls in Royal Oak will be eerily silent. So just drop into the German hall in James Bay and Portuguese hall in Royal Oak, both of which promise to be boisterous. The ball rolls from June 14 to July 15 across Russia’s troubled sporting landscape.
SCRUM OF THE EARTH: The Langford-based Canadian men’s rugby team plays Uruguay on Jan. 27 at B.C. Place and Feb. 3 in Montevideo in the Americas repechage qualifier for the 2019 World Cup in Japan. They are being framed as the two most important games for Canada in a generation.
The women’s Canada Sevens, hosted by the 2016 Rio Olympic bronze-medallist Canadian team, will be staged May 12-13 at Westhills Stadium in Langford.
ROYAL PROCLAMATION: The Victoria Royals have been taken out of the Western Hockey League playoffs the past two seasons in wrenching, yet unforgettable, fashion. What will follow Kelowna’s buzzer-beater in 2016 and Everett’s marathon WHL- and CHL-record five-overtime victory over the Royals in 2017? Fans will find out as this sometimes promising but equally inconsistent franchise looks on course to make the 2018 WHL playoffs despite the recent bad patch of losses. The WHL post-season begins March 23, leading to the 100th Memorial Cup in Regina from May 18 to 27.
RUNNING A REVOLUTION: It’s the Spandex demographic any city covets as residents or visitors. They will take over the roads again for the 29th Times Colonist 10K on April 29 and the 39th GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon on Oct. 7.
SKATING NATION: What colour of Olympic medals from Pyeongchang 2018 will Kaetlyn Osmond, Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir, Patrick Chan, Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel be showing the crowd at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on May 15 in Stars on Ice?
PLAY BALL: The Victoria HarbourCats came within one game of winning the West Coast League baseball championship last season. Brian McRae’s troops will look to take that final step this year, starting with the first pitch June 1 against Wenatchee at Royal Athletic Park.
The WCL season will be followed at Royal Athletic by the Canadian senior men’s baseball championship Aug. 22-26.
GOLF GALORE: The PGA Tour Champions may have kissed off the Island after two years of seeing the likes of Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh and John Daly roam Bear Mountain. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be good golf to watch. The venerable Bayview Place Open pro stop on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada will be back for the 35th annual version in June at Uplands (date yet to be finalized) with the PGA Tour Canada qualifying tournament April 30 to May 4 at Crown Isle in Courtenay.
A busy year includes the junior World Cup qualifier April 10-12 and Future Links Pacific Championship at Bear Mountain, the Canadian men’s amateur championship Aug. 6-9 at Pheasant Glen in Qualicum Beach and Duncan Meadows, and Canadian men’s mid-amateur Aug. 21-24 at Victoria Golf Club.