More medals for Manitoba

Team Manitoba athletes made their mark paddling to bronze and silver medals on the Red River yesterday.

The pair of medals earned in canoe-kayak raises Manitoba’s medal count at the Canada Summer Games to 20. Manitoba also saw action on the first day of Week 2 in swimming, tennis, female softball, and indoor volleyball.

Manitoba athletes in canoe-kayak qualified for four final races yesterday. James Lavallée was the first to reach the podium, earning bronze in a very close kayak 500-metre final. In the race, first-place through fourth-place were separated by only four seconds. Then the pair of Maddy Mitchell and Nicole Boyle earned a silver medal in the double canoe 1000-metre final. There are three more days of canoe-kayak at Canada Summer Games, with more 500 and 1000-metre events set fortoday.

The volleyball court heated up on the first day of Week 2 competition with Team Manitoba male and female teams playing a pair of games each. The female team faced Nova Scotia on the big stage, winning their match in four sets. The female team also won earlier versus Team Yukon, improving to 2-0 through one day. The male team split their games, beating Northwest Territories before losing to Ontario. Each squad will play five games before quarterfinal action on Thursday.

On the diamond, Manitoba’s female softball team opened round-robin play with a 7-0 win over Team PEI before dropping their evening game with Saskatchewan, 5-1. Team Manitoba will play nine qualification round games before playoff competition begins on Friday.

Team Manitoba male soccer hits the pitch for the first time tomorrow. Their pool play will include games against Team Yukon and Team Quebec. Game 1 is against Yukon at 4:30 p.m. at Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex.

There will be more final races in both swimming and canoe kayak on today. Cycling and golf events get underway for the first time, while female softball and indoor volleyball teams continue competition on the second day of Week 2.