Breenie Jefferson makes waves on her way to picking up three medals in towed watersports at the 2024 BC Summer Games. | Rod Jones / BC Summer Games
By Nick Laba, North Shore News
Summer might not be all fun, but it’s certainly games for a roster of fierce young athletes from across the North Shore.
From July 17 to 21, dozens of competitors from North Vancouver and West Vancouver travelled to Maple Ridge, where they joined the roughly 2,430 athletes at this year’s BC Summer Games.
The 33rd annual Games took place on the q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) and qʼʷa:n̓ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen) First Nations, and were supported by 1,100 volunteers, 482 coaches and 213 officials, according to the organizers.
In total, North Shore athletes took home 10 gold, 12 silver and nine bronze medals, and were particularly strong in water sports and on the wrestling mat.
Here are the local competitors who placed in the Top 3:
In the girls laser radial sailing event, West Van’s Emilia Armitage took gold. She shared the podium with Claire Lamont of North Van with silver.
North Van sailors swept the podium in the boys optimist class, with Aidan Heeney winning gold, Kirby Ryan silver and Miles Heeney bronze.
In boys laser radial sailing, Gustave Deseau (NV) won silver and Andre Deseau (NV) bronze.
In the towed water sports category, Breenie Jefferson (NV) won an impressive three medals, with golds in the girls trick and jump events and bronze in girls slalom. Nearby, Cole Webb (NV) grabbed gold in boys trick and silver in boys jump.
Mateya Hariton (NV) paddled to a gold medal in the female canoe-kayak C-2 1,000-m “learn to train” event.
Isabelle Stack-Hunter (NV) swam to silver in the girls 100-m freestyle and bronze in the 100-m butterfly. She also won gold in the 4x50-m freestyle relay and the 4x50-m medley relay, with Cassandra Wang (WV) joining her on both of those teams. Timothy Hu (WV) won bronze with the 4x50-m freestyle and medley relay teams.
Emilia Armitage of West Vancouver sails to gold in the girls radial laser sailing event on Saturday, July 20 at the BC Summer Games. | Mike Goldsworthy / BC Summer Games
On the wrestling mat, Marko Kieling (NV) dominated the boys 63-kilogram weight class to win gold. Meanwhile, Benny Peng (WV) took gold in boys 60 kg, Taha Ghasemi (NV) pinned down silver in boys 74 kg, and Gelareh Ghodrati (NV) silver in girls 54 kg. In boys 90 kg wrestling, Hudson De Lazzer (NV) won bronze, while Drar Rohaan (NV) grabbed bronze in 54 kg and Rayan Bidhendi (WV) bronze in 45 kg.
On the track, Elia Comeau (NV) stepped to gold in the girls 1,500-m race walk. Jonah Louie (NV) speared a silver in boys javelin.
In team sports, Maya Blackwood (NV) won gold on the Zone 5 girls beach volleyball squad.
The Zone 5 girls softball team took silver, with Naia Calaminus, Gabrielle Fraser-Klein and Mikayla Schurer (NV) hitting the podium.
On the Zone 5 A mixed baseball team, Douw Van Heerden, Kolton Ogawa, Matthew Crock and Mattias Elsner (NV) took the silver medal. That’s while the other Zone 5 mixed baseball team won bronze, with Isaiah Forhan, Ray Zweep and William McCarron on that roster.
The girls Zone 5 soccer squad scored silver, with Tessa Kustner, Misha Kurji, Evie Sherwood, Caitria Cooper, Elizabeth Gyton (NV) and Dela Dordar (WV) hitting the podium.
Boys Zone 5 soccer also won silver, with Hanzo Inagaki, Ben Barisoff, Ethan Hopkins, Mats Polizzi, Luca Trigos, Andrew Loutit, Adam Widdis (NV) and Rogelio Palacious Valenzuela (WV) taking part.
Kai Smilgis (NV) and Marcus Zhou (WV) were on the silver-medal Zone 5 boys volleyball team.
Kayla Lee, Brianna Tang (NV), Sophie Taylor and Maria Fernanda Rodrigues Solano (WV) won bronze on the Zone 5 girls basketball team.
For the full results, visit the BC Summer Games website.
