Athletes from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows were all over the podium at the B.C. Summer Games, which were held in Abbotsford from July 21-24.
The Games are the biggest event on the track and field calendar for athletes in the grades 8-9 age group, and some local athletes established themselves as the best in the the province.
Chisom Obioha anchored the Fraser Valley (Zone 3) team that won the girls 4x100m relay in dramatic fashion. She also took gold in the girls long jump, and silver in the 100m dash with a time of 12.64 – the winner was a mere one-tenth of a second faster.
Her coach with Golden Ears Athletics, Rick Lloyd, said Obioha was in second place in the long jump, and with her sixth and final jump furthered her personal best by 18 centimeters, with a leap of 5.60m.
“She was in second place going into that final round, and that was a good motivator,” he said.
Her Fraser Valley team was also involved in a tight finish in the 4x400m relay, and had to wait for the announced result, after Obioha and Fraser River team’s Jasneet Nijjar battled it out in the final metres. Obioha’s team edging out Fraser River by .04 of a second. Fraser Valley officially posted a time of 50.22 seconds, while Fraser River ran 50.26.
Obioha said she could feel the presence of Nijjar nearby, but managed to push through.
“We had a bit of a lead when I got the baton, but I was a little scared,” she said. “I gave a bit of a side eye and I knew she was there.”
“It was kind of iffy because I had a bad start but I pulled it together at the end,” she said.
The foursome gathered near the timing board to see the final results and were elated to see the win.
“I was so happy I was screaming,” she said, upon realizing she had won the gold. “I wasn’t so sure at first, but it felt really good to win.”
The Maple Ridge native has trained with the Langley trio for the past several weeks in anticipation of the event.
Nicholas Aron and Marshall Shupe both ran for bronze in the 4x400m relay. Aron also won gold in both the 800m and 1200m races, and Shupe took bronze in the 800m.
A pair of leapers also did well, as Nick Kuzyk won gold in the boys triple jump, and Aiden Grout won the high jump with a leap of 1.80m.
Marquesis Haintz won silver in the 1,500m steeplechase with a personal best time.
Mateya Haintz took silver in both discus and hammer.
Jillian O’Dell was on the silver medal girls basketball team.
Caroline Jeanneret was on the Valley equestrian team that took silver.
The Fraser Valley boys soccer team took gold, and that team included Anthony Hernandez, Cameron Ickert and Evan Smith.
The gold medal winning girls soccer team featured Kareena Sahota, Sabrina Jones, Sierrah Burrows, Cassidy Craig and Angelie Stepputat.
The silver medal winning girls softball team had a strong local presence with Naidine Burdett, Kate Meredith, Jaycee Berkey, Christine Swolfs, Brianna Blais, Mariah Riley, Shae Domitruk and coaches Dave Case and John-Mark Prevost.
The volleyball team, with Paige Healey, Tamar Bil and Rachel Dumonceaux won bronze.
The bronze medal winning field lacrosse team feature Drew Andre, Trevor Funk, Lochlan Munro, Kaidin Sheehan-Davies, Gord Kask and coach Lance Andre.
Ryan Hicks was on the Fraser Valley wrestling team that won bronze, and he took silver in the boys 48 kg event.
Sienna Kraus and Amy Ehlert took silver in golf.
Swimmer Kailin Wood took bronze with the girls 4x50m free relay team.
Also in the pool, Ellen Hayhoe took silver in the girls 100m breaststroke and 200m butterfly, and bronze in the girls 400m IM, and 100m butterfly.
In boys soccer, Phillip Estacio was on the Zone 4 team that took bronze.
Dylan Allen won bronze in para equestrian events.
In the canoe/kayak events:
• Lilly Small and Megan Pankratz won gold in the girls K-2 (kayak) 500m learn to train class and silver in the C-2 (canoe) 500m learn to train. Individually, Pankratz also took gold in the K-1, 200m.
• Cassidy McPherson and Jia Kim won gold in the girls K-2 500m, in the K-2 2000m open, the C-2 500m, and the C-2 2000m open.
Individually, McPherson took gold in the K-1 500m and K-1, 2000m, and Kim won silver in the K-1, 2000m and C-1 500m,
• Noah Said took silver in the boys C-2 500m train to train class, in the C-2 2000m open, and in the C-4 500m open. He also took silver in the C-1 2000m.
• Alexander Dmitriev won bronze in the boys K-2 2000m, K-2 500m, and the K-4 500m open. Individually, he took silver in the C-1 200m,
In the mixed canoe/kayak events Said and Small took bronze in the K-4 500m open and Said won bronze in the C-4 500m open. Dmitriev, Small and Pankratz were on the OC6 500m open team that won bronze.