Submitted, with files from the Castlegar News
The 2014 BC Summer Games came to a close on Sunday in Nanaimo. Over 3200 athletes, coaches and officials from across B.C. competed in 19 sports during the four day event.
The rain held off at the Closing Ceremony and the audience was treated to entertainment from local talents, Mikaila Tombe and dancers from Vibrant Dance Studios and Tempo Dance Academy as well as 13 year-old Ian Perry and his band from Gabriola Island.
Four time Olympian and BC Games Society Board member, Dave Calder, spoke to the athletes and reminded them that medals and sucesses are not the only things to be taken from these Games. "Remember that you learn lessons from all your successes and failures and each experience is important."
Port Alberni Wrestler, Nolan Badovinac was recognized with the W.R. Bennett Award for Athletic Excellence. With two gold medals at the 2014 BC Summer Games and an impressive resume of sport and leadership success, Badovinac receives a $2500 bursary to support his future sport or educational expenses.
The City of Nanaimo was a suberb host with over 3200 volunteers working on every detail of the planning and staging of the Games. Local businesses contributed in excess of $900,000 as to support the Games.
Her Honour the Honourable Judith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia was present to speak to the audience and officially close the Games.
The next BC Games will next be hosted in the City of Penticton for the 2016 BC Winter Games. Penticton Box Lacrosse athletes, Travis Hamilton and Michael Maclean, accepted the BC Games flag from Nanaimo 2014 BC Summer Games President, Jeff Lott to take back to their city.
Summer games retrospective
With an exciting weekend in Nanaimo behind them, Castlegar's BC Summer Games veterans can now look ahead to the next challenges in their respective sports. Whatever those challenges may be they'll be better met thanks to experience gained recently on Vancouver Island.
What follows is a summary of the games action from a Castlegar/Kootenay perspective.
• Castlegar's Tanner Pearson demonstrated sailing skills that earned him an eighth-place ranking.
• The Kootenay soccer boys, with locals Hardy Hutt, Heiko Ihns, Nicholas Jenner and Carson Pottle played their way to a fifth-place finish in the province-wide competition.
• A fifth-place ranking was also achieved by the Kootenay girls softball squad made up of players from Cranbrook, Trail and Salmo, along with Castlegar's Emma Lloyd and Robson's Molly Benbow.
• Keeping with the fifth-place theme, Castlegar's Victoria Peebles helped the Cranbrook-heavy girls volleyball crew to a most respectable finish.
• In golf, Castlegar's Jeffery Ashton helped his Kootenay squad to a most impressive second place ranking at the end of competition.
• Finally, a pair of Castlegar athletes, Bryce Allen and Colton Kavaloff did their best along with Kootenay mates in box lacrosse competition. Team-placing results were unavailable, however, as of press deadline.