Prince Albert’s Hudak wins third gold medal
Brittany Hudak is celebrating a hat trick.
Hudak, a cross-country skier from Prince Albert, won her third gold medal at the 2015 Canada Winter Games on Thursday. She won the para female five-kilometre standing free mass-start event in Prince George, B.C.
With a time of 14 minutes 36.20 seconds, Hudak was well ahead of the second-place finisher, Margarita Gorbounova of Ontario (16:54.30).
Hudak completed a trifecta that also included gold medals in the 2.5-km standing classic (interval start) race Monday and the 1.2-km standing classic sprint Tuesday.
Saskatchewan also won two medals in judo Thursday.
In the 81-kilogram male division, Regina’s Bryce Martindale earned a silver medal. He lost 10-0 to Ontario’s Mohab El Nahas in a gold-medal bout.
Moose Jaw’s Tallissa Edwards received a bronze medal in the female 70-kg class after losing 10-0 to Adriana Isasl of Quebec in a semifinal.
Hudak, Martindale and Edwards helped Saskatchewan increase its medal count to 27 — six gold, eight silver and 13 bronze — with three days of competition remaining in the two-week event. Saskatchewan won 23 medals at the previous Canada Winter Games, held in 2011 in Halifax.
As of Thursday night, Saskatchewan was fifth in the medal standings behind Quebec (124), Ontario (88), B.C. (70) and Alberta (61). Next in line after Saskatchewan were Manitoba (15) and New Brunswick (12).
In other Team Saskatchewan highlights:
CURLING: The Reginabased Kaitlyn Jones team finished the female curling round robin with a 4-2 record after losing 8-6 to Sarah Daniels’ B.C. team Thursday. Jones (skip), Sara England (third), Shantel Hutton (second) and Rayann Zerr (lead) placed third in their seventeam pool behind Ontario (60) and B.C. (5-1). They play in a quarter-final today.
FIGURE SKATING: Raine Eberl of Moose Jaw was fifth in the novice male singles free program Thursday. In the female novice free program, Ai Lin of Regina was 10th and Shayanne Bear of Whitewood was 12th.
HOCKEY: Saskatchewan’s male hockey team played Ontario in a quarter-final Thursday night. The result was unavailable at press time.
SQUASH: In the male team event, Saskatchewan defeated the Northwest Territories 4-0 Thursday. Saskatchewan finished third in its pool with a 3-2 record and advanced to a crossover playoff match today.
TABLE TENNIS: Joanne Feng, Tenny Zhang and Jin Wu all won crossover matches in female singles before losing in the playoff round Thursday. Saskatchewan placed seventh in mixed doubles (Zhang and Kevin Song), female doubles (Feng and Wu) and male doubles (Dave Feng and Lida Su). Song, Su and Dave Feng were all in the relegation round in male singles. All the Saskatchewan table tennis players are from Saskatoon.