The water at Macdonald Island Park was golden for Special Olympics athlete Jesse Shade (Campbell River) at the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games. Four gold medals in the pool were just the beginning for the sixteen year old Vancouver Island swimmer.
Competing against swimmers eight to ten years his senior, Shade continues to demonstrate tremendous power in the pool. His times are comparable to ‘able bodied’ athletes. Shade also shaved four seconds off his personal best time in the 50m backstroke and two seconds off his personal best time in the 100m freestyle on August 13. A day later, Shade was back in the water and a full eight seconds faster than his competition, finishing the 100m backstroke with a time of 1:06.26. Shade was five seconds off his personal best to claim the gold for Team BC. A second gold later that day in the 50m freestyle in a time of 27:66.
“I really like to swim fast,” said Shade humbly about his own performance. “I trained with the winter club in Campbell River and it helped a lot.” Shade is no stranger to multi-sport competition. In the last year, he has competed in the North American Indigenous Games in Regina and the 2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games in Vancouver. Read more…
Several other medals were won in the pool today including a sweep in the 200m butterfly buy Jordyn Ryan (Comox) for the women and Colin Gilbert (Kamloops) for the men. Ian Ralston (Campbell River) won gold in the 100m Para butterfly, while Team BC also won gold in the men’s and women’s 50m freestyle. Wendy Yang (Burnaby) touched in 25.43 for the women’s 50m free, while Tai Long Singh (Point Roberts) touched in 23.30 to take gold in the men’s. In total today BC swimmers brought in 25 medals of which 15 were gold, four were silver, and six were bronze.
Team BC badminton continued their outstanding success on their second day of mixed competition with a 9-0 win over Manitoba. Kylie Cheng (Vancouver) was outstanding in her singles match winning 21-4 and 21-6 over Manitoba’s Claire Meier, while Cheng and team mate Jenna Wong (Surrey) also won their doubles match in two sets 21-12 and 21-2. BC continued to dominate beating Nunavut 9-0 later in the day.
On the water the BC men’s eights posted the fasted time in their preliminary race. The BC crew of Oliver Dugbartey (Victoria), James Houston (Richmond), Kenneth Huang (Vancouver), Will James (Victoria), Liam Keane (Victoria), Miles Tickner (Victoria), Sean van Gessel (Victoria) and Ryan Watt (Victoria) crossed in 2:16.78 to qualify for the eights final where they went on to win gold, beating Alberta with a time of 2:15.69.
In baseball Team BC came out on top winning 18-3 over Manitoba to regroup after last night’s late loss to Alberta. This was the only game of the day for BC who now post a 3-1 record with two games left to go in round-robin play.
A trio of BC women led the charge on the golf course today as Hannah Lee (Surrey), Tiffany Kong (Vancouver) and Alisha Lau (Richmond) are first and tied for second, respectively, on the leader board. Lee shot a 72, while Kong and Lau both finished with 73 in the first of three rounds at Fort McMurray Golf Course. Team BC golfer A.J. Ewart (Coquitlam) leads the individual men’s competition after an opening round score of 71. Ewart has a three-stroke gap on second-placed Tayden Wallin of Saskatchewan, who shot 74. Tristan Mandur (Mill Bay) and Keenan Flemming (Sechelt) shot 76 and 78, respectively, for Team BC. All teams will be out on the course again tomorrow, August 15, at 8:00 am for the women and 9:00 am for the men.
In softball, Team BC women dropped Saskatchewan 7-4 and beat Alberta 9-2 in their opening two games of the day. Manitoba served BC their first loss of the tournament, 7-5, although BC are still atop the standings with a 5-1 record. Manitoba trails with a 4-2 record and Alberta are split 3-3.
On the courts, Team BC’s women’s volleyball team women were dealt their first loss in their first game of the day. BC lost 3-2 to Alberta in five sets, while later in the day BC beat Saskatchewan in three close sets winning 25-17, 25-23 and 25-18.
The men’s volleyball team cruised past the Yukon in their opening game of the day winning in three sets, while they were dealt their first loss of the tournament by Alberta in their second game of the day. Alberta went 3-0 over BC with the third set being very close, just 25-22.
In all Team BC earned 26 medals today, bringing the total to 223. The Games continue in Wood Buffalo on August 15, with all nine sports on the competition schedule.
For more Team BC news from today, click on the sport links in our side menu. Daily recaps for each sport are available.
Social Media Highlights
Do you want to be featured in our newsletter as a “Tweet of the Day” or “Pic of the Day”? Be sure to use our hashtags #WEareBC or #TeamBC or tag us @GoTeamBC when posting on Twitter or Instagram.
Picture Perfect
Our Team BC photographer, Kevin Bogetti-Smith is working hard and capturing highlights from all 18 sports at the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games. These photos are available for you to view and download on our Flickr site: flickr.com/photos/team_bc/
The host society also has their volunteer photographers travelling the venues taking amazing shots of the athletes in action. These photos can be viewed here.
Alumni Pins
Two pins worth keeping extra safe are the special alumni pins given to all Team BC members as well as a pin just for BC Games alumni, who are part of Team BC this year. These pins are presented with a special recognition card at the Western Canada Summer Games to symbolize their significant achievement and acknowledgement of their contribution to Team BC’s ongoing sporting legacy.
Team BC Birthdays
Tomorrow, Michaela Moore from our softball team will be celebrating her birthday! Let’s all send her birthday wishes! Happy Birthday #TBCSoftball M Moore!
Tomorrow's Schedule
08:00 Golf Individual Female Round #2
08:00 Golf Team Female Round #2
09:00 Badminton Team Competition Mix AB vs BC
09:00 Golf Individual Male Round #2
09:00 Golf Team Male Round #2
09:30 Swimming Heats
09:30 Swimming 800m Freestyle Finals
09:30 Swimming 50m Breaststroke Para Sport Finals
09:30 Swimming 50m Breaststroke Special Olympics Finals
09:30 Swimming 100m Breaststroke Male Finals
09:30 Swimming 150m Individual Medley Para Sport
09:30 Triathlon 3 x Relay Team Female
10:00 Softball Female AB vs BC
10:30 Rowing Men's Quad (TT)
10:40 Rowing Women's Pair B Final
10:45 Triathlon 3 x Relay Team Male
11:00 Baseball Male BC vs SK
11:00 Soccer Female BC vs SK
11:00 Volleyball Indoor Female BC vs MB
11:05 Rowing Women's Pair A Final
12:45 Volleyball Indoor Male BC vs NT
13:30 Rowing Men's Pair (TT)
13:40 Rowing Women's Single Finals
14:00 Soccer Male BC vs SK
14:00 Softball Female BC vs MB
14:30 Baseball Male AB vs BC
14:30 Rowing Men's Single (TT)
14:40 Rowing Women's Four B Final
15:05 Rowing Rowing Women's Four A Final
16:00 Rowing Women's Double (TT)
16:45 Volleyball Indoor Female 1st vs 4th
16:45 Volleyball Indoor Male 1st vs 4th
16:55 Rowing Men's Quad B Final
17:00 Rowing Women’s 8 plus Coxswain B Final
17:30 Rowing Men's Quad A Final
17:35 Women’s 8 plus Coxswain (A Final)
17:30 Swimming Finals
18:00 Softball Female BC vs SK
18:30 Volleyball Indoor Female 2 vs 3
18:30 Volleyball Indoor Male 2 vs 3
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