Summerside, PEI
Hurricane Bill might not have supplied the warmest welcome to the young athletes as they arrived in PEI over the weekend, but most are probably more concerned with their competition than the weather.
The second week of competition in the Canada Summer Games kicked off on Monday with different venues, athletes and sports (mostly).
Now, with the hub of operations moved from Summerside to Charlottetown, a different group of Yukon athletes are set to perform, but not in every sport.
This week, the territory will be represented in men’s and women’s volleyball, athletics, swimming, men’s soccer (with the women’s having taken place last week) and the newest addition to the Games, golf, with three boys taking to the links.
In week one, Yukon’s athletes not only developed fond memories and new friends, but modest successes as well.
Surprisingly, Team Yukon’s first triumph of the Games came on the tennis court, instead of in a cycling event, as some might have expected.
After dropping his first few matches, Whitehorse’s Kieran Halliday defeated NTW’s Ryan Weir, 6-2, 6-4 Wednesday in Charlottetown. (Tennis was the only week-one event held in the province’s capital.)
“It was my last match at the tournament, so I just wanted to go out there and have fun,” said Halliday. “I think I learned a lot at this tournament.”
The girls’ basketball team went winless at the Games, facing such stiff competition as BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Manitoba. However, the boys’ team avoided the last place spot, defeating the NWT team 84-55 on Thursday to give them a 1-4 record at the tournament.
“I think we’ve all learned a lot, experienced a lot and have all gotten better at this tournament,” said Yukon forward Logan Gray. “We accomplished many of our goals, so I guess it was a great tournament for everyone.”
The girls’ soccer team failed to produce a win, but proved themselves to no-walkover, with three one-goal losses, going down 2-1 to Saskatchewan, 2-1 to NWT and 3-2 in overtime to PEI midweek. They began the Games with a 12-0 blowout to powerhouse Ontario.
“Our whole goal was to come here and compete—Ontario was obviously out of our league, but the other guys, we competed against them,” said Yukon coach John MacPhail.
By far, showing the most consistent results was the Yukon’s Heather Enders, who ended her cycling career with top-20 results in all four cycling events.
See full cycling coverage on page 8.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com