T The Prince George Citizen - Monday, July 31, 1995 - 15 Sports Simply kids’ stuff by TED CLARKE Citizen Staff You might say Jenny and Jesse Tate had an unfair advantage going into Sunday’s Prince George Kids’ Fun Triathlon. Although Sunday’s event was only the second ever for the Tate siblings, they had a wealth of experience to draw upon. Their father is Stephen Tate, a veteran triathlete who finished second overall in last week’s Prince George Triathlon. Judging by Sunday’s results, Jenny, 11, and Jesse, 12, have obviously put their dad’s advice to good use. ' “It helps because he can teach me a lot of new stuff on the bike and how to beat kids in the pool,” said Jenny. “He just taught me it doesn’t matter how you finish as long as you try.” Jesse said he’s learned a lot just by Watching his father race. “I just sort of picked it up from other triathlons,” said Jesse. Jesse won the 11-12-year-old boys category, while Jenny finished second in the 11-12-year-old girls race. “It felt terrible coming off the bike,” said Jenny, as she awaited the medal presentations at Fort George Park. “It felt like I had bags of sand tied to my feet. But it was better than last year.” Jenny finished the course in 40 minutes and 11 seconds, behind Nicole Schnapp, who clocked in at 38:40. Jesse, a member of the Prince George Pisces swim team, was second to Darrell Lindsay after the 200-metre swim at Four Seasons Pool, but caught him early in the eight-kilometre bike ride along Patricia Boulevard and around the park. The final stage was a two-kilometre run. “The swim was kind of hard for me — there was too many people in my lane and I kept choking on the water,” said Jesse, whose time of 32:11 was nearly two minutes ahead Lindsay’s. “The bike is my strongest event and I did really good in that. But I’ve never been good at running and I think I could’ve done a lot better if I’d done more training.” Stephen said he lucked out finding Jesse a bike for just $50. After a few repairs, Jesse was left with a racer worth close to $1,000, which certainly didn’t hurt his time Sunday on the bike. “Jesse’s the most keen on triathlon and he might be training for next year’s Prince George Triathlon if he’s up to it,” said Stephen. “I’ll try it,” added Jesse. A third Tate, 10-year-old Jackie, was entered in Sunday’s triathlon but broke a bone in her elbow in-line skating and couldn’t race. The triathlon attracted 113 athletes on a cool but sunny morning, up 10 from last year’s total. Individual and team competitors aged 10 and under raced a course half as long as those age 11-15. Results on page 16. TRIATHLON TAG Citizen photo by Chuck Nisbett Cyclist Chelsea Eveneshen tags with runner Kristine Lambel during Sunday's Prince George Kids’Triathlon at Fort George Park.The pair teamed up with swimmer Amanda Nolan to finished fourth in the 10 and under team category. The event drew 113 participants. More than 50 athletes took in Saturday’s triathlon clinic sponsored by the Prince George Triathlon Club and the B.C. Triathlon Association by TED CLARKE Citizen Staff It was a clinical success. More than 50 young athletes showed up for Saturday’s triathlon clinic put on at Four Seasons Pool by the Prince George Triathlon Club and B.C. Triathlon Association junior development co-ordi-nator Lance Watson. The free clinic offered tips on such topics as pacing, transitions, training, bike safety and equipment. “I watched a video (Saturday) and learned what not to do,” said 10-year-old swimmer Andrew Kurjata. Kurjata, along with Ian Armistead and Nicholas Rowe, was part of the Leaping Leopards team which finished second in the 10-and-under team category in Sunday’s Kids’ Fun Triathlon. “Last year I kept switching from the front crawl to the back crawl every quarter-length of the pool. This year I stuck with one thing for longer and I was faster.” Watson said because triathlon is a relatively new sport, established coaching and training programs are still in their infancy. “There’s no triathlon practices; it’s not like hockey,” said Watson. “But if you give them a chance to learn about it and get comfortable with it, they’ll go away not thinking this is just a one-time thing every year.” Watson said his job this year is to tour the province and show the various clubs how to run the clinics so that next year, the clubs will be able to run them on their own. “Now we’re starting to get second-generation triathletes, so we hope the parents will start giving back to the sport by getting the clubs going,” he said. Watson, a former member of the national amateur team now living in North Vancouver, was impressed with the turnout both at the clinic and for Sunday’s race. “We had 90 kids for our triathlon in North Vancouver and this is just great,” said Watson. “With their energy level and enthusiasm, adults could learn a lot from them.” Mountain bikers have a blast by Citizen Staff The one event that might have benefited from a little rain got none Sunday. But that didn’t make the Tabor Mountain Dual Slalom Mountain Bike Race any less successful. • Thirty-six riders took on a steep, 150-metre course at Tabor Mountain east of Prince George in this first-time event. “It’s a technical course,” said race organizer David Mah. “If you go too fast, you slip out and fall down.” Mah said the course stayed dry even as the city was rained on. Mountain bikers rode two 13-gate courses to determine their seeding as A or B. Then, CYCLING they were judged by time and technical riding to determine the winner. Peter Campbell emerged as the top rider, winning the A-side race and a $40 cash prize. Rob Hill came second and Casey Johnson took third. On the B-side, Dennis Moffat led the field, followed by Justin Cole and Kevin Flanagan. Mah said he was pleased with the turnout of riders and spectators, though he’s unsure if another race is planned. “It’s a high-visibility sport,” he said. Nechako Valley 15™ Annual * Mixed Reg Ball Tournament August 5,6,7 • $250.00 ENTRY FEE • Round Robin / Divisional Play Format • Over $i 1,000 in prize money For more entry information call ^ Steve Little 567-3938 evenings I OR CONTACT YOUR LOCAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Citizen Marketplace 562-6666 * BC GAMES Soccer team leaves Games walking proud by DON SCHAFFER Sports Editor The gold medal game didn’t turn out the way Nicola Maslen had planned. But despite an 8-2 drubbing at the hands of a pumped-up Vancouver team, the L&M Engineering players were holding their heads high Sunday morning. “Gold would have been nice, but we’re really going to be happy with this silver medal,” said Maslen, whose standout play in goal Saturday night had a lot to do with putting the Prince George women’s soccer team into the gold-medal game. “We worked really hard and we don’t have anything to be ashamed of. I feel really good, and I’m really glad Mr. McWalter (coach David) picked me up to come.” Maslen, who plays in the Prince George women’s league for Alfredo’s Pub, was the biggest reason L&M advanced to the final. She made a number of tremendous saves in both the second half and overtime as Prince George took a narrow 2-1 win over Tsawwassen. In Saturday’s game, the teams were tied 1-1 after the first half on a goal by Liesle Dyck, one of the tournament’s top scorers. But the Lower Mainland team pressed throughout the second half and most of the overtime, testing Maslen seriously on at least five occasions. Prince George won the game with just 19 seconds remaining in the second overtime period when Dyck had her second breakaway in just over a minute. A Tsawwassen player took her down in the penalty area and Kirsty McWalter, Dave’s daughter, scored on the penalty kick. But Sunday’s game was a different story. Vancouver, which beat Prince George 2-0 Saturday morning to win the preliminary pool, took over the final midway through the first half after McWalter adjusted his team’s lineup. “We were playing them even while we had four players back, but I thought we’d pull a player forward to see if we could buy a goal,” Dave said after the final. “It didn’t work.” With just three L&M players back, Vancouver pinned Prince George into its own end. The first goal came on a long, high shot that went between Maslen’s outstretched hands and the crossbar, and scored again about a minute later on another high shot from closer in. A third goal another minute later put the game out of reach, and Vancouver stretched its lead to 4-0 by the end of the half. Dyck scored twice in the second half. A lineup depleted by injuries didn’t allow Prince George to make a comeback. “I won’t let them hang their heads after this,” coach McWalter said. “They’ll be back, and the next time we’ll bring 16 players and we’ll have more than a half-hour’s notice to prepare.” The soccer team was the most successful of the zone’s teams featuring Prince George athletes. Two other squads, the women’s field hockey team and boys’ volleyball squad, fell just short of medals in bronze matches Sunday morning. The field hockey team, bolstered by three new Prince George players with previous experience, came within a penalty shot of taking their bronze game against Okanagan into a shootout. “One of our defenders took down one of their players in the box, and they scored on their penalty stroke,” said Zone 8 player Jackie Collins. “It was a great game — we were so close.” The team, winless the past two years, won its first game Friday and another Saturday to finish tied for first in its pool with three other teams. Zone 8 won a shootout between the three to advance to the semifinals, where it fell 1-0 to Vancouver, the eventual silver medal winner. Because of the small number of players in the zone, the team had an age exemption — other zones restricted ages to younger players. But with the team’s success, it’s uncertain if the zone will continue to be exempt from the age restriction. “I already figured I wasn’t coming next year because of the age restrictions, so I don’t know if I’ll be back,” Collins said. “We’re not sure what’s happening.” Meanwhile, the boys’ volleyball team fell 15-2, 15-12 to Vancouver Island in its bronze medal match, while the girls’ team finished sixth. In basketball, the boys’ and girls’ teams were also sixth each, while the boys’ baseball team was eliminated Saturday. More results on page 16 Accident hits cyclist hard by DON SCHAFFER Sports Editor PENTICTON — Margie de Grace had an interesting weekend at the B.C. Summer Games. It wasn’t the weekend she had planned, however. She spent most of the weekend trying to shake the cobwebs out of her cranium after a serious accident Friday during the off-road cycling competition in the hills just east of town. “I lost my memory, so I don’t really know what happened,” de Grace said Sunday, still a little woozy but pretty much recovered from her mishap. “I know my chain was giving me trouble all day, so I was probably looking down at my chain and hit a rut. I fell off my bike and I must have hit my head.” De Grace said she lay beside the course for almost a half-hour before another cyclist came by. “The girl who was ahead of me did a whole lap before she came back and found me,” de Grace said. “I got a concussion and I didn’t feel that good.” De Grace said her coach woke her every hour Friday night after the accident to make sure the concussion wasn’t keeping her unconscious. “I phoned my mom Friday and she was just freaking out 011 the phone,” de Grace said. “But I’m okay now.” She might be fine, but she’s under doctor’s orders not to race for a while — “I guess if I hit my head again it could be pretty serious.” De Grace was unlucky, but so were others at event sites around the Games. During Saturday’s road race, a pilot car took a wrong turn and ended up in downtown Penticton, where Smithers rider David Williams was clipped by a car and knocked off his bike. Williams wasn’t seriously injured. A water skiing organizer at Sunoka Beach north of town wasn’t so lucky. He was cut seriously in a boating accident and spent the weekend in hospital, while a participant was injured in another incident. Medical officials at the Games wouldn’t release any details.