Bow Valley athletes win medals and top 5 finishes at Canada Summer Games

NIAGARA — Four Bow Valley athletes in basketball, rowing, triathlon and volleyball wore Alberta Blue against the nation’s best at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games in southern Ontario August 6-21.

Alberta finished fourth in medals with 111 – 35 gold, 33 silver, 43 bronze – the most gold medals ever won at a Summer Games and the second-highest total medal count at Canada Games.

Wildrose Province medalists include Evvia Belieau of Canmore, who helped the women’s volleyball team win silver in Niagara.

“It was an honor to play in a tournament with the best players in my age group in the country,” said the 17-year-old libero. “It has been amazing to see that more multisport games have been able to resume since the pandemic began. The Niagara region were great hosts, all the volunteers were friendly and helpful making it an amazing experience.”

To reach the volleyball match for the gold medal, Alberta easily ran through their preliminary pool and then defeated Nova Scotia in the quarterfinals and Saskatchewan in the semifinals.

In the finals, Alberta faced an overpowered Manitoba squad that has three players on the All Rookie U Sports team. When the last ball touched the ground, Alberta was defeated in three sets to one (25-22, 17-25, 25-20, 25-10).

Prior to the tournament, Belieau was named Volleyball Alberta’s 2022 Under-18 Athlete of the Year and has garnered national attention for her work on the court.

At 15, triathlete Kahlen Anderson became the second youngest competitor in the women’s field at the Canada Summer Games, finishing twice in the top 20, including a remarkable top 15.

“When I saw all the older girls getting on the podium, it was cool to see that even four years from now, if I’m doing so well now, hopefully I’ll be able to be on the podium at games like this when I’m her age.” said Anderson.

In rainy and damp conditions, the triple comrade from Canmore finished 17th^th in the sprint (1:14:15), 750 meters swimming in 12:26, ​​20 kilometers cycling in 37:32 and running five kilometers in 23:24. The bike portion was particularly slick that day as almost half of the men’s and women’s field fell due to the windy and wet weather. Anderson stayed up despite the carnage in the race.

In the super sprint, Anderson had her top result of 15^th (27:53) – remains close to the lead and less than two minutes behind first place. She swam 300m in 5:43, cycled 8km in 14:51 and ran 1.6km in 6:30 to set her personal best.

“I was happy to finish in the top 15 because that was my big goal,” said Anderson.

“I swam really well so I was just behind the lead group. I had a good bike ride, I dropped a few people, and the run was good too.”

In men’s basketball, Canmore guard Corey Banks and Alberta advanced to the bronze medal game but were defeated by Nova Scotia 90-83.

Baller, 18, from Canmore, scored his best goal in the preliminary rounds, losing eight points in a win over the Yukon.

For the women, Kiana Worobey, 18, of Banff and provincial teammates finished fourth in the sculls (7:16.88) – five seconds off the podium – and fifth in the sculls (7:36.27).

A strong rower, Worobey took up the sport during the COVID-19 pandemic and has grown into one of the brightest young athletes in the province.

The province with the most medals at the Canadian Summer Games was Ontario with 198 (86 gold, 60 silver, 52 bronze). Quebec finished second with 142 (49 gold, 51 silver, 42 bronze) and British Columbia with 128 (34 gold, 51 silver, 43 bronze).