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The traditional turnover day, when the first-week athletes clear out and the second-week athletes move in, arrived Saturday at the 2017 sa国际传媒 Summer Games in Winnipeg.
The first week was nothing short of a triumph for Island athletes. Twenty-eight Island athletes have won 37 medals at the halfway point. The 43 medals won by Island athletes at the last sa国际传媒 Summer Games, in 2013 at Sherbrooke, Que., is almost sure to be surpassed.
There are 92 Island athletes on a Team sa国际传媒 contingent numbering 354 athletes competing in 16 sports at the 2017 sa国际传媒 Summer Games. sa国际传媒 has 61 medals, including 26 gold, and is second behind Ontario鈥檚 total of 90 medals, but well clear of third-place Quebec鈥檚 51. Alberta has 34 medals and Saskatchewan 20 to round out the top five. Host Manitoba is sixth with 18.
The sa国际传媒 Games are the national multi-sport gateway to the Olympics, World Championships, and Commonwealth and Pan Am Games.
Past Islanders who have competed in the sa国际传媒 Games include Olympic medallists Ryan Cochrane, Hilary Caldwell, Patricia Obee, Lindsay Jennerich, Olympians Steve Nash, Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski, Ian Bridge, Riley McCormick, Gary Reed, and other Island greats such as Gary and Paul Gait.
The idea is to get elite young Canadian athletes used to handling the distractions of being in a multi-sport environment with athletes from other sports, competing, staying and eating together in an athletes village.
"I enjoyed being treated like a pro athlete in the village and having free physio and free food," said Islander Jeff Webb, who won men鈥檚 beach volleyball gold at the Games with fellow Nanaimo-player Isaac Bevis.
鈥淎nd then, things like playing on TSN and meeting the prime minister was pretty awesome,鈥� added the six-foot-three hitter out of Dover Bay Secondary.
Bevis, also out of Dover Bay, agreed that the Games have been a valuable learning tool.
鈥淚t was great being in the dorms and having a good relationship with everybody,鈥� said Bevis, an incoming freshman, who will join sophomore Webb on the Vancouver Island University Mariners indoor volleyball team this fall.
鈥淜nowing that you can go across the hall and talk to some random dude that you have never met before, and say hello. Meeting new people is a really cool experience.鈥�
Desirae Ridenour of Cowichan Bay was the star athlete of the first week of the Games for sa国际传媒, with three gold medals. University of Victoria Vikes rowers Lise McCracken, a dual citizen and converted equestrian rider from Texas, and Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, also won three gold medals each.
Victoria Boardworks divers contributed six medals through Bryden Hattie, Coral Strugnell and Ryan Grover.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a great experience. I鈥檝e never been through something like this before,鈥� said Strugnell, a converted gymnast from Metchosin, who won silver and bronze.
鈥淚t鈥檚 good to be part of the next generation.鈥�
Among those closely watched in the second week of the sa国际传媒 Summer Games will be the all-Island sa国际传媒 men鈥檚 golf team of touted next-generation talents Tristan Mandur of Mill Bay and Victorians Keaton Gudz and Nolan Thoroughgood.
