LANGLEY - Team Tardi has become the first B.C. men's curling team to win a medal at the Canada Winter Games since 1999.
The rink, which includes skip Tyler Tardi, who plays out of Langley Curling Club, along with teammates from Fort St. John, Coquitlam and Victoria, beat Saskatchewan 11-2 to win the bronze medal game.The last time the B.C. men won a medal at the GWG was in 1999 when Brad Kuhn's team took home the silver, and then went on to win the world junior crown in 2000.Team Tardi began their CWG campaign in emphatic style when they won all five of their round-robin games. Unfortunately, for them, they lost to Manitoba 6-5 in a very close semifinal game before bouncing back for their bronze medal victory.Tardi, third Sterling Middleton, second Nicholas Umbach and lead Timothy Henderson led the game from the start after picking up a deuce in the first end, and stole singles in the second and third before delivering a game-deciding blow in the sixth when they got a five-ender.Speaking about competing at the Games, Tardi said: "It was a big honour to play the sport I love, representing my province on home soil. The atmosphere in Prince George was incredible - it reminded me of when I went to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver."Even though the semi-final outcome wasn't what we had hoped, it was a huge honour to win a medal in our home province."Also at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, Langley's Jessica Auton took bronze in the women's air pistol target shooting finals.Auton lives in Brookswood and has been a member of Langley Rod Gun club since she was 10 years old. She has won several gold medals provincially and in 2013 was the Canadian junior women gold medalist in air pistol, competing against shooters from across Canada.