Young athletes from the Sunshine Coast put on a dazzling display at this year's B.C. Summer Games in Abbotsford.
The event held last weekend brought together more than 2,400 athletes who competed in 25 sports during the four-day competition.
The Coast contingent competed in the Vancouver-Squamish zone and played a big part in the medal haul, picking up seven of the 77 medals won by the zone.
Track and field athletes dominated the podium in Abbotsford as Brianna Kane won a pair of silver medals. She finished second in the 200 and 400 m events and also struck gold with the girls' 4x400 m relay team.
"It was a really fun weekend," Brianna said. "We stayed at a school with all the other track and field kids. We got to hang out after we competed. I made so many friends. I've competed at big events before, but nothing as big as this. It's by far the best I've ever done in competition."
Rachel Van Wersch captured a silver medal as part of the 4x100 m relay team. The team finished in a time of 51.42 and came 0.3 seconds away from winning the gold medal.
Rachel also had solid results in three other events, finishing sixth in javelin, eighth in shot put and ninth in discus.
"The whole weekend was so amazing. Just competing at a meet of that calibre was such a great experience," Rachel said. "Winning the silver medal with the relay team was definitely the highlight for me. I thought we had a pretty good chance. I've competed against Rheanne Sleiman before and she is real fast. It was definitely nice to have her on my team instead of racing against her."
Tyrell Dempster, who is in his first year of track and field at Elphinstone Secondary School, put in solid efforts in his three events. He finished eighth in the hammer throw and 14th in the discus and shot put.
"He's a real rookie at these events, but I think he did really well," said Elphi track coach Tom Daniels. "All our athletes performed exceptionally well on the weekend. It bodes well for the future of our team for next year."
Madison Shoemaker had a sizzling weekend on the tennis court, winning four of her six matches en route to the silver medal.Madison didn't have a lot of time to savour her big win as she was back on the court Tuesday morning competing at this year's Stanley Park Open in Vancouver.
"I played really well and I'm happy with my performance," Madison said. "The two matches that I lost were against the girl who won gold. I also beat one girl that I've never beaten before, so it was a real confidence booster for me."
On the volleyball court, Creeker Kyle Richey helped lead her squad to a bronze medal, while on the soccer pitch, Kendra Pomfret struck gold with the girls' soccer team.
The gold medal was especially sweet for Kendra. She's spent the past couple of months commuting to Vancouver to train with the soccer team.
"It is just better soccer in Vancouver and more competition," said the centre forward. "There's a lot of line-ups to the ferries and stuff, but it's all worth it."
Kendra said the last few weeks were pretty intense.
"I was doing a lot of homework on the ferries," she said. "When you're getting home at 11 at night, the last thing you need to worry about is school work. The whole experience was really good. Our team motto was play as a team, work as a team, win as a team. The competition was fantastic."
And Kendra says she is more than willing to continue if that means making a mark on the sport she loves, even if it results in missing parties and sleepovers.
"I would like to keep building and moving on and hopefully play metro next year. I would also like to play provincially if I can," she added.
Kyla said her experience with the volleyball team was unforgettable and winning a medal was just icing on the cake.
"Right from the first moment I joined the team we instantly clicked together," Kyla said. "I felt kind of nervous because I didn't know any of the other players, but after the first practice that all went away. We played really well together as team. Even when we got down, our coach called a time-out, we'd talk things over and then go out and perform."
Besides winning the medal, Kyla was especially proud the team named her captain.
"I was surprised, because the team voted for the team captain and I wasn't expecting it at all," she added. "The friendships and the connections I made will last me a lifetime. We learned a lot from each other. I hope other girls and boys have the experience some of us had by going to the Summer Games next year."
