The Special Olympics Canada 2018 Summer Games kicked off in Antigonish, N.S., on July 31 and Team Yukon is off to a hot start.
Yukon’s first gold came in the pool when Ernest Chua won the 50 metre freestyle with a time of 45.34 seconds.
Chua and teammate Kevin Spofford both had good results in their respective 50 metre backstroke finals. Chua was fifth in his race with a time of 54.35 seconds and Spofford was sixth with a time of 53.53 seconds.
In athletics, Darby McIntyre and Jessica Pruden have earned both top-10 and personal best results.
McIntyre won a third-place finish in the 5,000 m final. He also finished fifth in the 1,500 m final with a time of four minutes and 58.01 seconds and was fifth in the 3,000 m with a time of 10 minutes and 33 seconds.
Pruden had a personal-best 40.61 seconds time in the 200 m divisioning race and wound up eighth in the final with a time of 51.58 seconds. In the running long jump, Pruden’s distance of 1.51 metres was enough to win silver. Pruden also had a personal best in the shotput divisioning round.
In bocce, Team Yukon has already played more than 10 matches. Taylor Pooyatak-Amundson was 1-2, Carrie Rudolph was 0-2, Theresa Roberts was 0-3 and Trevor Beemish was 0-2 following the first two days of competition.
Team Yukon’s soccer team went 2-1 in divisioning, with wins over two sides from Ontario. Yukon beat Mississauga 1-0 and Peterborough 3-0. Their lone loss came to Prince Edward Island, 3-0. Those results secured Yukon a place in Division C, where they dropped a match 5-3 to Prince Edward Island but rebounded against Peterborough with a 4-2 win.
Yukon athletes in action on Aug. 3 include Pruden’s 100 m final, Aimee Lien competing in rhythmic gymnastics, the soccer team in a match up with Mississauga and the 200 m, 25 m and 100 m freestyle finals in the pool.
Contact John Hopkins-Hill at john.hopkinshill@yukon-news.com