The B.C. Summer Games have come to a close and there are a good number of local athletes coming home with medals.
The opening ceremonies were held Thursday evening at the Rotary Bowl in Nanaimo. Friday morning kicked off the three days of competition with over 3,200 athletes giving it everything they had.
Chantal St. Laurent, from Parksville, looked calm, cool and collected on the water as she took home three gold medals, one in wake boarding, one in wake skate and one for the overall team win in towed water sports.
Parksville’s Julie Preston was also a triple gold medalist, winning in solo and figures synchronized swimming, and the team event.
On the wrestling mat, Parksville’s Ben Burgess and Luke Bromley both captured gold in the overall team category and silver in their weight classes. Burgess won silver in the boys’ 74 kg and Bromley in the 90 kg.
Nanoose Bay’s Simon Morrison was part of the boys’ 4x400 meter relay team that took gold and he placed seventh in the 200-meter and nineth in the 200-meter hurdles.
Parksville’s Dalton Austin finished seventh in the boys Hammerthrow. Jack Confortin, also from Parksville, had a 10th place finish in the 400 meter freestyle, 17th in the 400 meter individual medley and just missed the podium in the 800 meter freestyle, coming in fourth place.
Alexandra Roberts, from Nanoose Bay, finished 17th in the 400-meter freestyle and ninth in the 800-meter freestyle.
Shayne Blandin also had a great weekend, as she came in sixth in the 50-meter freestyle, 50-meter backstroke and 100-meter freestyle. Parksville’s Mariah St. Pierre narrowly missed the podium too, finishing fourth in girls beach volleyball.
A couple of local coaches won’t be going home empty handed either, as Deep Bay’s Bruce Biro was part of the bronze medal baseball team. Rowing coach Jonathan Rose, from Nanoose Bay, saw the girls’ doubles team earn silver and the boys’ doubles team take bronze.
Oceanside Place co-hosted some excellent box lacrosse, which eventually saw the Zone 4 team (Fraser River–Delta) capture gold, and Zone 6 (the Island) win bronze.
The Fraser Valley (Zone 3) led with 207 medals (79 gold, 72 silver, 56 bronze), with Vancouver Island coming in second with 183 (75 gold, 56 silver, 52 bronze).
Over 3,200 volunteers helped the games run smoothly and local business contributed more than $900,000 in support.