THE FREE PRESS SPORTS JUNE 7, 2001 eate For The CITY OF PRINCE GEORGE WATER LEAKS - SEWER BACKUPS The City of Prince George Utility Operations Division provides emergency response service for sanitary sewer backups and water leaks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you should experience a sewer backup, do not run any water, turn off appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines and then call the City of Prince George. For internal water leaks shut off the main valve where it enters your building. For any leaks outside the building call the City of Prince George’s emergency response line. UTILITY OPERATIONS 24 HR SERVICE HOT LINE 561-7600 www.city.pg.bc.ca Keeping off the couch George Gobbi doesn't let age stop him from hitting the course Swift silver at track provincials Cameron Swift lived up to his name last weekend, claiming Prince George’s only medal from the 2001 BC High School Track and Field Championships in Burnaby. The 16-year-old Kelly Road student broke the two-minute mark with a time of 1:59.21 in the 800-metre men’s event, enough for a silver medal. In the 2000-metre steeplechase he placed ninth with a time of 6:35.48. Although Swift is in Grade 10 and qualifies to compete at the junior level both he and Grade 9 Lakewood Junior stu- dent Geoff Martinson, Prince George’s only other entrant into the provincials, raced at the senior level. Martinson placed 13th in the 3000-metre and 19th in the 1500-metre. Jusine Boulin, a Quesnel Secondary student and member of the PG Track and Field Club, brought home bronze in the 1500-metre. Boulin graduates from Maple Drive Secondary this year and will be attending the University of Texas on a track and field scholarship in the fall. Owen Kirby, also of the PGTFC, took silver in the men’s javelin and Erin Prosk was bronze in the 1500-metre. By DOUG BROWN Free Press staff writer Once upon a time George Gobbi’s children raced BMX bikes. They loved the speed, the excitement and the competition. They would travel across B.C. and Alberta for provincial competitions, even once to England to race the Worlds and dad would go with them. Eventually he started to ride himself — after all, he was already at the track. But then George's kids, as kids do, got older, their interests changed and they quit riding. Not so, George. “It was a way to do something with the kids. I’m not interested in the points or the competition like the younger kids are,” says Gobbi on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the Prince George BMX Club’s outdoor track. “Now my kids are chasing girls but I still ride for the exercise and for the fun. That’s why I ride.” And after eight years of riding Gobbi, at 51 years old, is the oldest racer on the track. In that time he’s served on the club’s executive and helped in the construction of the clubhouse and the rebuilding of the track last year. He plans on resigning from the executive at this week’s annual general meeting. But quit racing? No way. “I’m retiring as director, but I’ll keep riding,” he says. “Otherwise I’d end up a couch potato.” Did you move into the area recently? Are you getting married, a new mom or a mother-to-be? * We Will Cut to Customer Specs * Vour Source of Specialty Lumber Products Dollar Saver Lumber Ltd. Hours of Operation Mon-Fri • 7:00am-5pm Sat. • 8am-5pm Now Open Sundays 10am-4pm 9359 Northern Cres. BCR Industrial Site (Next to PG Auto Wrecking) 561-2161 Fax:561-2767 Out of Town call us collect! visil our website: www.lumber.bc.ca____ George Gobbi rips around the Carrie Jane-Gray BMX track during last Sunday’s racing. Doug Brown/Free Press A truck driver by trade the chance to stretch his legs and feel the wind on his face after hours spent sitting is a welcome change for Gobbi. And for others as well. Although Gobbi’s the oldest, he’s by no means the only mature rider at the club. On Sunday he competes with two other racers in the 50 and over cruisers class and when he travels to compete he meets parents at every track — parents who’s kids have long since put their own bikes out to pasture. “There’s one fellow named Ken Williams, he’s 62 years old. And he can whip all of us,” says Gobbi. Too many people, he says, get to their late forties or fifties and decide they can’t do something like ride a BMX bike anymore. Rubbish. “We tease each other all the time. Of course we realize we can’t go like the young kids can, but we still race just as much.” When will George Gobbi quit throwing himself into the jumps, bumps and curves of the BMX track? Who knows. The excitement still hasn’t worn off — he still gets that telltale tickle of butterflies each time he wheels his bike up into the gate. Maybe when that disappears he’ll hang up his helmet. Then again, maybe not. “This is all I want — to just come out and race and then lean up against the fence, watch and enjoy it all.” •Lumber ‘Plywood • Packages •Fencing ‘Sheds ‘Treated Lumber •Timbers •Greenhouse If you fit into one of these categories and have not been contacted by l^. Welcome Wagon please call... f: WELCOME^pF V V SI AGON Since 1930 Prince George -3115