Sunshine Coast athletes marched often to the medal podium last weekend, bringing home nine medals from the B.C. Summer Games in Kamloops.
Halfmoon Bay's Kath-erine Short led the way with three medals, two of them gold.
Katherine took gold in both the cross-country and road race events with a bronze in the time trial. Katherine, who races with the On The Edge Race Club, was representing the Vancouver/Squamish zone, along with the other Coast athletes at the Games.
The Vancouver/Squamish zone finished in third place overall with 111 medals. Vancouver Island/Central Coast topped the medal standings with 127.
Katherine said she was thrilled with her performance and her first Summer Games experience.
"I worked really hard for it," she said. "On Friday I woke up feeling pretty sick, so I was a little worried, but as soon as the race started I felt better. It was super hot, over 40 degrees."
On Saturday, she competed in the road race and admitted she hasn't done a lot of road races in the past.
"It was so much fun - I had an awesome race," Katherine said. "I talked with my coach beforehand and we worked out a good strategy. I went in knowing what I wanted to do and it worked out really well."
On Sunday was the time trial. Although satisfied with the result, Katherine said it could have been higher given better weather conditions.
"The first few riders went out with a little bit of wind, but by the time I went out, there was a ton of wind and pouring rain. It was pretty tough," she said. "My whole experience at the Games was amazing. To march in during the opening ceremonies and be with all the other athletes and knowing that they all worked so hard to get there was really cool."
On the wrestling mat, Gibsons' Mike Rines and Ty Dempster picked up medals.
Mike won a bronze in the boys' 63 kg event, while Ty captured silver in the boys' 100 kg event.
"It was awesome," said Mike. "It was great wrestling at such a high calibre. There was great energy among all the competitors. I haven't wrestled in over five months, so I was a little rusty. I'm pretty satisfied with the bronze medal. Our team came in second overall, so that's pretty cool."
Jonathan Garmulewicz of Roberts Creek won gold with a personal best jump of 12.51 metres in the triple jump. He spent the last three weeks training with renowned coach Elena Voloshin of the Norwesters Track Club in North Van-couver. Obviously the training paid off.
"Coach Voloshin helped me improve my technique good enough to win first place," he said.
He also competed in the high jump, placing fifth with a score of 1.65.
Fellow Creeker Kendra Pomfret picked up a bronze medal in the 1,500 metre race walk with a time of 10:35:34, won bronze with the 4 x 400m team and placed sixth in the 1,500 metre steeplechase with a time of 5:49:72.
This was Kendra's second time at the Summer Games. Two years ago she won a gold medal for soccer.
"I was happy with all my results this time," she said. "I was hoping to place better in the relay, but the competition was pretty high. Two years ago with the soccer team we didn't have a lot of competition, but this time it was a lot harder. The competition was much higher."
Michaela Kane of Roberts Creek just missed a medal, finishing fourth in the girls' pentathlon.
Gibsons' Kim Doerksen also had a strong showing, finishing fourth in the triple jump with a score of 10.08 and 12th in the long jump with a score of 4.28.
Jennifer Stacey from Sechelt represented Sunshine Coast Special Olympics - and she did so with pride, winning a bronze medal in the long jump and solid placings in the 100, 200 and 400 metres and shot put.
