FOUR ALPINE RACERS QUALIFY FOR BC WINTER GAMES
Four racers from the Sun Peaks Alpine Club (SPAC) have qualified for the upcoming BC Winter Games following the first race of the season. U14 racers Clayton Dent, Rio Shatzko, Brynn Applegath and Noa Hooton will compete at Apex Mountain near Penticton from Feb. 25 to 28.
In total, 10 boys and 10 girls from the Okanagan qualified for the Games at the season’s opening Teck Zone Race held at the Nancy Greene International Race Centre on Jan. 16 and 17. Danielle Cowburn, the U12 coach for SPAC, will serve as the Okanagan zone coach at the Winter Games.
“It’s fun because it only happens every two years so it’s not something that’s a part of our normal schedule and it also happens at a time when there’s no other races going on,” said SPAC head coach Montana Molyneux.
The first zone race of the season was an overall success for the local racers. Thirty-one SPAC racers took to the two courses set up on OSV run, and the home club won 20 medals over the weekend.
“With the first race of the season it’s always used to set a benchmark to compare where you are with all the other athletes in the province and in the zone,” Molyneux said.
“I think a lot of them got some of the nerves out of the way for the first race and they were all excited to actually compete because we’ve been preparing since we opened in preseason (Nov. 9). It’s a lot of build up to the first race of the season happening two months later.”
The zone race marked the second straight weekend of Sun Peaks hosting a Teck event. The provincial Teck Open Race was held on OSV from Jan. 8 to 10 and featured nine U16 SPAC racers.
Liam Applegath and Emily Whitecross recorded top 10 finishes in their first race on the provincial circuit, and overall SPAC racers had 11 top 20 finishes.
“It’s a good result for a first year for sure to be in the top 10 in the province knowing you have a whole other year of development to happen.”
A complete list of results for both races is available online at www.bcalpine.com/calendar.
“Running two races in a row is a pretty stressful endeavour but we had an amazing group of parents and I know that community members came out to help,” Molyneux said. “I think we might’ve ran one of the best races in the province.”
What did you think of this story?
Your feedback after we publish a story helps ensure we're always improving our reporting to better serve you.
