TEAM ALBERTA MEDIA RELEASES
BIG MEDAL DAY FOR ALBERTA AT THE CANADA SUMMER GAMES
Women’s Beach Volleyball will face Ontario in Gold Medal match
(Winnipeg, MB) It was a busy day for Team Alberta on Thursday with multiple medals at the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, MB.
On the sixth day of competition, Alberta earned a total of ten medals, thanks to strong performances in rowing, athletics, and cycling.
Alberta currently sits in fourth place of the medal standing with 15 medals (2 gold, 7 silver, 6 bronze). Ontario is leading the charge, followed by British Columbia and Quebec.
>>> 2017 CANADA SUMMER GAMES MEDAL STANDINGS
ALBERTA ROWERS EARN FIVE MEDALS
Alberta had six boats entering the main finals at Kenora Rowing Club for the Canada Games rowing regatta, and earned a total of five medals: 2 silver and 3 bronze medals.
Aline Belzil (Edmonton, AB) and Veronique Ulrich (Calgary, AB) earned a silver medal in the women’s pairs race, ending the race four seconds off the winning time set by BC.
In the women’s eight event, Alberta took an unexpected silver medal by posting a time of 6:52.90 just five seconds from the title. The crew is comprised of Belzil, Ulrich, Miki Chantler (Calgary, AB), Justine Foster (Calgary, AB), Nicole Foster (Calgary, AB), Claire Hinse (Calgary, AB), Sofia McGurk (Calgary, AB), Sarah Power (Edmonton, AB), and Claudia Reisinger (Calgary, AB).
Alberta’s boat racing in the lightweight fours earned the bronze medal. The crew members are Aaron Harrower (Edmonton, AB), Connor McKenzie (Calgary, AB), Adam Miller (Calgary, AB), and Samuel Pohl (Calgary, AB).
The men’s pairs crew of Curtis Ames (Calgary, AB) and Alexander Sawers (Calgary, AB) won the bronze medal.
Tavis Enno (Calgary, AB), Karl Hare (Calgary, AB), Erik Hohnstein (Edmonton, AB) and Kyle Pollock (Calgary, AB) won the bronze medal in the quadruple sculls race.
A BUSY DAY AT ATHLETICS WITH FOUR MEDALS FOR ALBERTA
The University of Manitoba Stadium was a busy place today with multiple finals taking place. Alberta was well represented in those finals and managed to take home four medals.
An impressive gold medal came out of the track with Austin Cole in the 400m race. Cole completed the distance in 47.25 seconds, just ahead of Ontario’s Ramzi Abdulahi (47.60) and Quebec’s Alexander Szuba (47.68).
“My teammates and coaching staff are one of the many reasons I love this sport. There is no better feeling than your teammates and coaches being there for you after a race, win or lose. I am proud to wear Alberta’s colours and always want to represent them when I can,” said an exhausted Cole after his race.
In winning the gold medal, Cole lowered his personal best in the event. He is the 2017 University of Alberta’s Male rookie of the year, and University of Alberta’s Track and Field MVP. He is also the Track and Field Usports National Champion in the 300m sprint event.
Team Alberta’s Opening Ceremonies Flag Bearer Aaron Hernandez (Coaldale, AB) won the silver medal thanks to his season’s best performance, jumping a whopping 15.25 meters. Rival Patrick Hannah of Quebec won the event with a jump of 15.63 meters.
Hernandez, 21, is the 2017 USport National Champion in the event and won the 2016 Olympic Trials. Hernandez was named three times the Athletics Alberta Athlete of the Year award (2012, 2013, 2014).
In January of 2017, Hernandez had to switch his take-off leg from my left to my right due to patella tendinitis in his left knee. “The switch from taking off with my right leg instead of my left leg is like people only writing with their non-dominant hand. The rhythm was confusing, and at times I wanted to quit because it was so hard. I pushed through, and in March of 2017, after just 3 months of training with my new take off-leg, I won the USports National Championship, a title I have twice won prior.”
In the women’s 400m hurdle event, Charlotte Terek (Calgary, AB) won the silver medal with a time of 1:00.47. Her medal-winning performance was also her season-best performance, which was previously set on June 24 at 1:03.34. It also represents her career personal best performance.
The women’s 4X100m relay added a silver for Alberta.
ISAAC NILES SECURES SILVER MEDAL IN FAN-FAVORITE SPRINT EVENTS
The eliminator races took place at Bison Butte Mountain Bike park this morning, and Isaac Niles came in to play for Alberta, securing the silver medal in the fast pace race.
Niles, who celebrated his birthday on race day, was happy with the very fast course that was set for the eliminator, or sprint event. “The course was a killer today; I’m very happy with it. It was a long drag race. It was long enough that you could settle into a rhythm with quick riding. These are my second Canada Games as I raced in Sherbrooke. This time around I really wanted to come out of these Games with something to show for. I am just over the moon that I can walk away with a silver medal here.”
Added Niles: “The depth of field here is so short; we are all on par. There is no endurance factor to it necessarily, so it was going into this thinking that I had a shot at getting into the finals and get up on that step.
ALBERTA NARROWLY LOSES BASEBALL SEMI-FINALS TO MANITOBA LATE INTO INTENSE GAME
Team Alberta faced Manitoba in the semi-finals of the baseball tournament. The hotly anticipated match between the host nation and Alberta, the top-seeded teams in each pool, took place at Shaw park in front of close to 4000 spectators cheering on their local heroes.
The tight game took 6 innings to see the only run on the board. Manitoba opened the scoring thanks to pinch-hitter Tanner Doyle, who hit a double to score the first and only run of the game.
In the final inning, Alberta’s first batter was walked. The next batter hit a sacrifice bunt moving the runner to second base. The third batter added another runner on base thanks to a hit by pitch. After a line drive to the shortstop brought the count to two outs, the next batter was walked to load the bases. With bases loaded and two outs, the next batter hit a fly ball to right field to end the game.
Alberta will now face Ontario in the Bronze medal match, slated for Friday, August 4th at Shaw Park.
ALBERTA TAKES FOURTH PLACES IN MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TRIATHLON TEAM RELAY
The triathletes went back to competition after enjoying a few days of rest and training; this time take taking part in the team relay race.
The men’s team comprised of Aiden Comeau (Edmonton, AB), Chris Gregor (Calgary, AB), and Neo Gleason (Canmore, AB) finished fourth the men’s event.
In the women’s relay, Team Alberta members Hayley Basterash (Edmonton, AB), Emma Skaug (Calgary, AB) and Morgan Ott (Winnipeg, MB) also finished in the fourth place.
Unable to race today as she has both arms in a cast as a result of a crash in Monday’s individual event, Mary Hnastyshyn was replaced by local triathlete Morgan Ott, a member of the Canada Games spare athletes pool. Interestingly, Ott proudly raced for Alberta as she is originally from Calgary, Alberta.
Correction of the final results of the earlier event: Chris Gregor finished 6th and Aiden Comeau 7th of the individual events. Hayley Basterash finished sixth, while Mary Hnastyshyn finished 9th. Impressively, Hnastyshyn completed the women’s triathlon after being part of that multi-bike crash and sustaining a broken right arm and left wrist.
MARGO ERLAM TAKES FOURTH PLACE IN 10M PLATFORM DIVING
In the 10m platform competition, Margo Erlam (Calgary, AB) qualified for the finals with the second-best score of 278.25 points. Later in the day in the main Finals, she improved her qualifying score to total 280.26 points, the fourth best score of the final round. Brooklyn Whyte (Edmonton, AB) placed 20th.
In the men’s 10m platform event, Carlo Lopez (Edmonton, AB) qualified for the finals with the eleventh best score. In the main event, Lopez finished in 12th place.
ALBERTA BEACH LADIES ADVANCE TO GOLD MEDAL MATCHUP, MEN TO PLAY FOR BRONZE
In front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd, Team Alberta faced British Columbia in both the men’s and women’s semi-finals action today at the Sargent Park Beach Volleyball center.
Earlier in the week during pool action, the two women’s team faced off, and it took extra points in the third set to decide the winner.
In today’s important semi-final, Alberta’s Kate Pexman and Olivia Furlan, both of Calgary, were dominant in the matchup today against the BC ladies. Alberta started strong taking the first set 21-13, and continued their dominance with a 21-9 win in the second set.
The men’s team dropped their matchup against BC in a tough battle that took three sets to decide a winner. BC took the first set 21-19, but Alberta bounced back to take the second set 21-15. In the final set, BC started strong taking a four-point lead at 10-6, but the resilient team from Alberta scored four unanswered points to tie it up at 10. BC responded with a surge taking the set 15-11.
The Alberta ladies will face Team Ontario in the Gold medal match, while the men will similarly take on Ontario for the bronze medal match. Both medal matches are presented tomorrow.
ALBERTA DROPS TO NOVA SCOTIA, TAKES FOURTH PLACE
The Alberta women’s soccer team took to the Ralph Cantafino Soccer Complex to compete in the bronze medal match against Nova Scotia.
In ideal soccer temperature, the Alberta ladies played a competitive match in the first forty minutes of play. Coming out of the locker room, Nova Scotia was first to break the ice scoring early in the second half, in the 43rd minute.
Alberta kept the pressure in the attacking zone. However, Nova Scotia’s defense tightened up and managed to protect their lead through to the final whistle.
OTHER NEWS
The sailors continued their event up in Gimli under sunny skies and good sailing conditions.
The men’s softball team defeated British Columbia in their first match of the placing round. The win extended their tournament with an evening game against fifth-placed Newfoundland in which they lost. The team faced some very difficult challenges this week and leading up to the tournament and have performed well despite the obstacles they faced.