Yukoners set for Canada Games

The athletes are ready and after months of preparation all there's left to do for the Yukon's Canada Summer Games contingent is showcase their skills on the national stage.

The athletes are ready and after months of preparation all there’s left to do for the Yukon’s Canada Summer Games contingent is showcase their skills on the national stage.

If Wednesday’s pep rally, held at Porter Creek Secondary School, was any indication, the Yukoners competing at this year’s Games are ready to take to the field, pool, court, golf course or track for their respective sports.

“For some of them, this is going to be the chance of a lifetime to go,” said Stephen Mooney, mission staff for the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. “Being in a small pool of athletes, these kids are incredibly fortunate to get picked and to represent the Yukon at these high level of Games.”

Yukon athletes competing during Week One will catch a flight to Charlottetown Friday, while the remaining members of the team are scheduled to fly to the P.E.I. Aug. 22. Week One athletes will return to Whitehorse on Aug. 22.

Sports scheduled for Week One include basketball, cycling, soccer (female) and tennis, while Week Two will see Yukon athletes suit up for athletics, golf, soccer (male), volleyball and swimming.

Besides taking group pictures, officials at the pep rally went over a few last minute details and there were some motivational speeches, including one from 2008 Summer Olympian Jeane Lassen. The territory’s flag bearer was also announced.

Troy Henry will get the honour at the opening ceremonies, scheduled for Saturday.

Henry, is on the Yukon’s cycling team for the Games and has a lot of experience representing the territory to draw on, in both summer and winter competitions.

In addition to cycling, Henry is one of the Yukon’s top speed skaters and has won multiple medals at the Arctic Winter Games.

Members of the Yukon’s basketball boys’ and girls’ teams and the girls’ soccer squad are hoping some recent Outside competition will help them out at the Summer Games.

The boys’ and girls’ basketball squads last tournament was in Winnipeg at University of Manitoba.

Mooney said the two teams didn’t win a game, but after it was over had a greater understanding about the level of competition that will be at the Summer Games.

“The big thing is there’s going to be stiff competition (in P.E.I.),” he said. “The kids have already gone to a pre-tournament two weeks ago, they played teams from Alberta, P.E.I., Nova Scotia and they saw the level of competition that they are going to be up against.”

The Yukon’s girls U-18 soccer group had some recent success in Alberta where they placed second in Calgary and first in Sherwood Park, the following weekend.

The girls’ soccer group will open the Canada Summer Games against Ontario.

Swim Yukon is hoping the team it has assembled can put an end to the territory’s medal draught at the Games.

A lot of the organization’s optimism is because of 16-year-old Alexandra Gabor, who just returned from two high level competitions: the British Grand Prix and the World Championships, held in Rome.

Gabor won three medals in Britain (silver in the 4x200-m freestyle relay, silver in the 4x100-m freestyle relay and a bronze in the 200-m freestyle), breaking six B.C. swim records in the process.

At the World Championships, she placed 20th (out of 92) in the 200-m freestyle event. Her time of 1:58.63 was a personal best.

Swimming the third leg of the women’s 4x200m relay in Rome, Gabor helped the Canadian team qualify fourth in the preliminaries, making the final. She achieved another strong swim in the relay final, helping move the team up from seventh to fifth, before watching them finish in eighth place.

Gabor is signed up to race in 10 events at the Summer Games (five individual and five relays)

“There’s a lot of pressure from myself to do good because it’s another swim meet and, of course, I want to get best times and a couple of records, maybe,” she said. “I definitely think I have a shot at a few golds and it’s just going to be exciting. If everything goes to plan, if I do everything properly, it will turnout.”

Gabor said the experiences in Britain and Rome should help her in P.E.I. 

“I just feel a lot more prepared going into it than I did at the last Canada Games, partly because I am placed higher now and also because I have had that experience,” she said. “I know what to expect at meets like this.”