Prince George recently welcomed thousands of athletes from across the province to compete in the 2022 Summer Games.
The Comox Valley Cougars track club had 10 athletes that qualified to compete at the games for Zone 6, the largest zone for Athletics at the games. Each athlete could compete in a maximum of three individual events or the pentathlon and one relay.
Temperatures were high throughout the weekend, but the facilities, officials and volunteers were outstanding. Two of their athletes from Campbell River, Ryan Lofstrom and Victoria Hoffman, dominated in their races.
Lofstrom ran commanding races to win Gold in the 100m and 200m sprints and in the 4x100m relay. He also took home the silver medal in the shot put.
Hoffman finished in second in both the 80m hurdle and 300m hurdle races. She also helped the Zone six 4 x 100m relay team win a bronze medal. In field events, she came 4th in the shot put. Teammate Maile Wesner of Comox finished just behind Hoffman in 3rd place in the 300m hurdles. She was also a member of the gold medal winning 4 x 400m relay team. Kylie Zaal also ran the 300mH finishing in 6th place.
Gillian Galik of Royston competed in the girls Pentathlon, completing all five events in one day. After struggling in her 80m hurdle race, she rebounded to jump a 10cm personal best in high jump and also threw a PB in shot put. She finished the day with the bronze medal. Walker Smits had a great run in the 1500m steeplechase finishing in 5th place with an 11 second personal best time.
In the field events, Payge Doty-Brown won the Silver medal in hammer throw. Thomas MacDonnell won the bronze medal in the boys Javelin with teammate Tyson Servos finishing in 5th. For the girl’s javelin, Erika Burry won the gold medal with a personal best throw of 42.57m.
Mom and club coach Stephanie Hoffman was at the games as a spectator. She said, “The comradery and sportsmanship was above anything anyone could have imagined. Every athlete was encouraged, cheered for and included. As a mother and a coach, I couldn’t be more proud of our zone 6 athletes. A memorable, heart-warming, soul-impacting games.”