More than 70 senior athletes from across the Shuswap returned home laden with more than 40 medals.
The Shuswap athletes racked up 16 gold, 16 silver and 11 bronze medals in the BC Senior Games, which were recently held in Coquitlam.
Approximately 3,200 athletes from across the province over the age of 55 competed in the annual Games.
Cyclist Mary Ellen Pakka just missed capturing a golden hat trick as she settled for silver in the time trial.
Pakka also claimed gold in the road race and gruelling hill climb events.
In the always competitive men’s hockey tournament, the perennial contenders from Salmon Arm and Kamloops won bronze.
Shuswap residents included on the Salmon Arm Cavaliers roster is Brian Burgess, Bert Ducharme, Gord Mackintosh, Bob Munro and Roy Sakaki.
Out on the links, in Division A, Lewis Henderson shot the lowest score to claim gold while Monty Kilborn won bronze. In Division B, Fred Horne and Matthew Schmidt claimed the top two spots on the podium.
The North Okanagan Angels women’s slo pitch team showed their supremacy on the diamond with gold. Members of the Zone 8ers slo pitch team Janny Merwin, Iva Jules, Cathy Packmann and Dee Whitmore took bronze in the tournament. Paul Corrie played for the Eagles side that won silver in the men’s 65+ soccer event.
Helen Dalin from Chase managed to win a medal of each colour as she dominated the lanes in five pin bowling.
For swimmer Terry Van Meer from Enderby, medals seemed to come easily, as she claimed six. Individually, Van Meer raced to gold in the 50-metre freestyle and 25-m butterfly. She won silver in the 50-m backstroke and 100-m freestyle. In the relay races, she claimed a pair of silvers in both the 4x25-m medley and freestyle relay races, along with teammates from Kamloops.
In table tennis, Gary Lanoue won gold along with his partner Ross Lowndes in men’s doubles tournament, and silver in the singles tournament.
Mick Ford claimed silver on the tennis court for Zone 8.
More than half of the medals won by Shuswap athletes came from the track and field events with Yvonne Dibblee leading the way with seven medals in the 60-64 age division.
Dibblee won gold in six events including discus, hammer throw, javelin, shot put, weight throw and the weight pentathlon. She also picked up a sliver in the high jump.
In the men’s 70-74 age division Tony Haas won silver in the 5,000-m and 10-kilometre power walks and a bronze in the hammer throw.
Helen Byron competed in the women’s 75-79 division and won silver in the 10-km, 5,000-m and 1,500-m races and the weight throw.
Margaret Raffan competed in the 5,000-m race and javelin earning gold in the women’s 80-85 division.
Competing in the women’s 65-69 division, Barbra Little won silver in the 100-m and 400-m races and a bronze in the 5,000-m. Linda Haas won silver in the 5,000-m power walk and bronze in the 10-km power walk in the same division.
In the women’s 55-59 division Diane Tighe claimed bronze in the 100-m, 400-m and 5,000-m races.