MANITOULIN ISLAND—Several Manitoulin Special Olympic (MSO) snowshoe team members and curling rinks will be considered for qualification at the provincial championships in 2019 following their outstanding results in a competition held this past weekend.
“Our athletes did awesome,” stated MSO coach and coordinator Janet Anning, after the MSO snowshoe team and two curling rinks took part in an Ontario Special Olympics regional competition, held in Sault Ste. Marie this past weekend.
“This was a qualifier for the provincials in both sports next year, so hopefully some of our athletes will be chosen,” said Ms. Anning.
In snowshoeing, Matthew Bedard was first in the 400, 800 and five kilometre races; Dayne Tipper was first in both the 800 and 1,600 metre races in his division; Kelsey Mellan was first in the 200 and 400 metre races in her category; Mark Dokum was one of the MSO athletes in a snowshoeing competition who took top spot in the 100 and 200 metre races; Allan Francis was second in the 100 metre race and third in the 200 metre race; Bruce Van Horn placed first in the 200 metre race, and second in the 100 metre race; Norman Daoust, also competing for the first time in snow shoeing, was first in the 100 and 200 metre races, while Arthur Haines took top spot in the 50 metre race and second in the 100 metre race.
“We are so proud of our teams,” said Judy Olacke, coach of the MSO snowshoeing team. “They showed great sportsmanship throughout, congratulating each other and all teams, on a good effort.”
Ms. Olacke said the inconsistent weather conditions this winter has made it difficult for the MSO snowshoeing team, with several practices having to be cancelled this winter. However, “everyone managed things well. We have some snowshoeing team members this year who have improved immensely over the winter. It has been very rewarding to see them improve so much.”
Ms. Anning explained, “We had two teams take part in curling. The Regan Millsap, Rebecca Strain, Andrew Splawanyck and Randy Corbiere rink took second spot in the A division. And the John Hopkin, Dayne Tipper, Lilly Verboom, Mary Ann Nichols rink finished third in the C division. This is the first time this team has competed in curling, and for their first time competing they did very well. The teams were coached by Ellen Holroyd and Nancy Leeson.”
