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Medals roll in for Surrey track athletes at provincials

Ocean Athletics members combine for 28 individual medals at Coquitlam-hosted B.C. Championships
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Ocean Athletics’ boys 4x100-m relay team competes at BC Track and Field Championships. (Contributed photo)

Athletes from across the Semiahmoo Peninsula made their way onto the provincial podium last weekend, at BC Track and Field Championships in Coquitlam.

South Surrey-based Ocean Athletics’ athletes combined for a total of 28 individual medals, as well as eight more in relay events. Alexa Porpaczy, who competes for the Valley Royals track club and is fresh from a gold medal in high jump at Canadian championships earlier this month, also added another gold medal to her quickly growing collection, while Tyrell Mara – a longtime South Surrey resident now living in Langley – also won gold, in men’s discus.

Like Porpaczy, Mara was also a medallist at nationals, winning bronze in discus at the Ottawa competition.

In Coquitlam, Ocean Athletics was led by sprinter Valda Kabia, who repeated as B.C. champion in the women’s 200-m with a time of 24.73 seconds. The runner – who will attend East Texas A&M University this fall, a news release notes – also won silver in the 100-m.

Owen Pinto also won multiple medals at the provincial competiton, winning the midget boys 800-m in a time of 1:57.68, while also snagging a silver medal in the 1,200-m. Other gold medallists included Tyler Wilson, who was first in the midget 1,500-m racewalk; Emma de Boer, first in midget girls high jump; Emmanuel Dadson, first in youth triple jump; and Olivia van Ryswyk, who took top spot in the youth pole vault with a leap of 2.90-m.

Elijah de Hoog also won two silver medals – in junior long jump and triple-jump – while Kayla Smith also ended up on the podium twice after winning silver in midget girls 400-m and bronze in the 800-m. Miya Kobylanski won silver and bronze, too – in midget girls steeplechase and 2,000-m, respectively – while Roy Jiang was another multiple-medal winner, with silver in midget boys 100-m and bronze in the 200-m.

Other silver medallists were: Kiera Pederson (junior 100-m), Dominique Luccock (junior decathlon), Aneel Gillan (midget pentathlon), Angela Peters (midget 200-m), Ryan Pederson (youth long jump) and Tristin Ghintel (midget pole vault).

Bronze medallists from Ocean Athletics were Madeline Bonikowsky (midget 800-m), Tess Bulka (junior 100-m hurdles), Ryan Denman (youth high jump), Macy Michaud (youth pole vault), Gabrielle Hack (youth triple jump), Kenny Blackman, Jr. (youth 100-m) and Darren Ahn (midget high jump).

Track meet moved

The BC Junior Development Track and Field Championships are coming to South Surrey this weekend, after a last-minute move from the Okanagan.

Originally, the event was set to be held in Kelowna, but BC Athletics announced July 14 that due to air-quality issues in the Okanagan city – a result of the many wildfires in the area – the event had been moved to South Surrey Athletic Park.

The event is set for July 21-23.