Youth bowlers from age 8 to age 18 took part in the Youth Bowling Canada 5-Pin National Championships in Regina May 7 to 9. This included several from Saskatchewan and the West Central area as well.
YBC Chairperson of Saskatchewan Leesa Cunnigham, explains who all took part in the championships.
“You've got your typical provinces like BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, you have Ontario split into two, there's northern and southern and we've also got PEI, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Northwest Territories.”
She then went into detail about the age groups who took part.
“The youngest (age group) is eight for this level, and that's something that is governed by Sport Canada. This was a 5-pin bowling tournament that we had a couple of weeks ago so, they go up to age 19, our 10-pin youth bowling goes up to age 21.”
To the players, a few had gold medal winning weekends. This included the Jr. Girls in doubles, and Akeira Anseth from Cut Knife took her second consecutive Junior Girl Singles gold. The Jr. Girls team consisted of Hailey Bareti and Taelar Kerr, along with Coach Ronda Osipoff.
Akeira Anseth from Cut Knife (center) defended her gold medal at the Championships. Some others also hit the podium, as the Jr. Boys team of Haiden Duden, Kaiden Douhaniuk and Coach Denise Piller took home bronze. Also taking home bronze was the Jr. Mixed team of Coaches Denise Piller, Rhonda Osipoff. Taelar Kerr, Hailey Bereti, Haiden Duden, Kaiden Douhaniuk, and the Sr. team of coach Erin Gardiner, Biggar native Cassandra Raschke, Jayda Weston, Austin Gurski, Coach Tamara Christensen, Garrett Christensen also had a podium finish of bronze.
Cunningham was also very happy with the representation of the province of Saskatchewan, including the West Central communities.
“One of the things I want to mention is how great it was that we did have representation from those smaller communities this year. We had people from Lloydminster, from Biggar and from Cut Knife this year.”
Cunningham also talked about all the fun things the kids did, while keeping in mind the competitive spirit of the tournament.
“It's a great time for the kids, they all made trading bags. So, they do exchanges when they're there, and usually they'll have little things in there that represent the provinces. Some kids' parents made wooden bowling pins for them, some made trading cards. I saw a few pencil cases that were homemade with their logos on them, that kind of thing. They had a blast.”
Cunningham also thanked the entire crew in Regina for all of their hard work.
“I would just like to thank the crew in Regina for putting on a great show this year. They really took the bull by the horns this year and did a great event for everyone.
Next year’s edition will be the 60th anniversary of the YBC national, and with the way things were in the 59th edition, it looks like some more hardware from Saskatchewan may be on the horizon.
Thu, Apr 25, 9:30 AM
