Amidst the desert-like conditions and blazing summer heat searing Kamloops, two Prince George swimmers found a gold-medal oasis in the indoor pool at the Western Canada Games.
Sterling King, 15, and Danica Ludlow, 14, each helped B.C. win gold in the 4X200-metre freestyle relay. King teamed up with Joe Byram of Kelowna, and Vancouver swimmers Justin Chan and Edward Zhao to win their event Thursday night in 7:31.39
Also on the podium were Alberta (7:37.85) and Manitoba (7:49.29)
The B.C. girls 4X200m free relay team of Ludlow, Sherry Liu of Burnaby, Taylor Paddington of Campbell River and Amy Sun of Vancouver also won gold, finishing in 8:10.52. Alberta won silver in 8:15.47 and Manitoba claimed bronze in 8:32.09.
Ludlow also placed ninth in the 100m freestyle and is part of the 4 X 50m freestyle relay final tonight.
King finished fourth in the 1,500m freestyle, 20 seconds off the gold-medal pace of Luke Reilly of Richmond. He qualified for the 400m freestyle final and also placed third in the 200m butterfly final Friday night. King made the top-eight in the 100m freestyle but was excluded from the final due to the fact each province is limited to two athletes in any final. Byram and Zhao went on to win gold and bronze respectively in that event.
Erika Morris of Prince George and her B.C. women's volleyball team lost an epic five-set match to Alberta Friday morning (22-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-18, 10-15), their first match loss of the tournament, but rebounded in the afternoon with a straight-set win over the Yukon (25-13, 25-9, 25-15 to improve to 3-1.
"We wanted to work a lot on middle connections in that game and we did that well, so we got what we wanted out of the match," said Morris, a six-foot middle blocker. "We fought hard against Alberta. Hopefully we'll make it to the finals and get them there. We're a good team and as long as we keep calm and play our game we'll be able to be in that game."
The women's final will be played Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
The B.C. women opened Thursday with wins over the Northwest Territories (25-5, 25-10, 25-8) and Saskatchewan (25-21, 27-25, 25-17).
Nic Balazs of Prince George and the B.C. men's volleyball team was a force in their tournament-opener Thursday against the Yukon. Balazs, a middle blocker, led B.C. offensively with eight kills. The B.C. men fell to top-ranked Alberta in four sets Friday morning, losing 24-26, 19-25, 25-19, 22-25. B.C. squared off against Manitoba, another medal favourite, in a late match Friday night.
Dan Drezet of Prince George is an assistant coach for the B.C. men's volleyball team.
The home province leads the medal count with 155, including 69 gold, 45 silver and 41 bronze. Alberta, with 144, and Saskatchewan, with 107, are second and third in the medal standings.
Lisa Division of Prince George is manager of the B.C. badminton squad which improved to 3-0 Friday with a 7-2 win in its team tie with Manitoba. The 10-member B.C. team - Clinton Wong (Burnaby), Vanora Lo (Vancouver), Eileen Wong (Vancouver), Candice Ip (Victoria), Wan-Ting Tsai (Surrey), Benny Lin (Vancouver), Duncan Yao (Richmond), Nathan Choi (Vancouver), Katrina Cheng (Vancouver), and Samuel Dunner (Vancouver) - on Thursday defeated the Yukon 9-0 and Saskatchewan 8-1.
