January
Angus Tweedie takes on the world
Smithers’ very own Angus Tweedie will take on the world at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships.
Tweedie will be racing for Canada’s junior national team. The championships will take place Feb. 26 to March 4 in Otepaa, Estonia.
February
Smithereen Jan Wengelin coaches Canada’s Olympic alpine snowboarders
Jan Wengelin, a 25-year Smithers resident, was hired by the national snowboard team to become the parallel giant slalom head coach on the alpine snowboard team.
“There are a lot of good young kids in the Smithers area. I think I helped ignite a lot of ideas. The bottom line is that if you build something they will come. The club had a good program,” he said.
Bulkley Valley athletes impress at B.C. Games
It was an exciting trip to the BC Games for a group of Smithers athletes, and they showed they were not mere participants as they performed well and came home with excellent results. The top result from the locals was a bronze medal in the snowboard cross event from Kaitlyn Peterson.
March
Olympic spirit at ‘Ksan
Gold and silver-medal-winning Olympian Beckie Scott was at ‘Ksan in Hazelton. Scott is CEO of Spirit North, which has the goal of introducing Indigenous and Métis youth across Western Canada to cross-country skiing for the transformative power of sport and play. Moricetown School took part Friday.
Pair of podium finishes at Canadian Cross Country Ski Championships
Members of the Bulkley Valley Cross Country Ski Club have shown once again that size doesn’t matter when it comes to top level performance. Racing very well over a variety of distances and types of races, young skiers have brought home an impressive list of finishes including two podium appearances at the Canadian Cross Country Ski Championships in Thunder Bay, Ont. Standing atop the platform was Zoe Hallman who combined with another B.C. skier, Fred Albrechtson, to take the mixed gender final. Mia Recknell came in with a bronze in the mass start skate race.
Double gold for Yee
About the only thing that went wrong — and that is probably not even the right word to use — is missing the record for the women’s 3,000-metre race by four seconds.
“It would have been nice to get the record,” admitted Trinity Western Spartans (TWU) middle distance runner Regan Yee. “It would have been the cherry on top.”
Instead, Yee had to settle for bringing home a pair of gold medals from the U Sports national championships over the weekend in Windsor, Ont. Yee won both the 1,500 m race and 3,000 m race and she finishes her five-year Spartans career as the most decorated TWU athlete with three gold and five overall medals at the national level.
April
Callie Lancaster national biathlon masters’ champion
Callie Lancaster became the biathlon national masters champion while teammate Lèa-Marie Bowes-Lyon was runner up. Lancaster felt that she had a relatively successful season this year. Out of 19 events, she finished first in 17.
May
Northwest hosting international bike tour
Called Grizzbait, the tour is organized by Traction eRag, an online off-road motorcycle magazine based in Ontario.
Smithers hosts provincial softball championships
The competition will consist of up to 24 teams in four divisions.
Gryphons soar over track and field records at zone championships
With a wet practice field, it was a short lead up to the high school zone track and field championships, but that did not seem to hold the Smithers Secondary Gryphons back as they dominated all parts of the meet with many personal bests as well as numerous zone and school records. Zone records were broken by Eliyah Brawdy, Logan Unruh, and Evan Doyle.
June
Steelheads not playing again
Smithers Steelheads head coach Tom DeVries said they have no plans to operate next season. “Some guys do want to play but you need more than a couple. Only 10 guys is not going to cut it,” he said.
Upper Skeena Rec Centre could be biomass heated
The up to 500 spectators sitting on the heated bleachers of the new $16-million recreation centre in Hazelton may be kept warm with biomass heating. Heart of the Hazeltons chair Peter Newberry said it would be in collaboration with the Gitxsan Development Corporation and save $50,000 per year in operating costs.
