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LangleyAdvance
Making a splash pg A30
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Friday, July 23 , 2010
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Troy Landreville/Langley Advance
Zone 3 athletes from the Fraser Valley showed their enthusiasm as they entered McLeod Athletic Park during the opening ceremonies of the BC Summer Games Thursday evening.
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Young athletes from across the province were welcomed to Langley Thursday. by Matthew Claxton
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To the skirl of pipes, the beating of First Nations drums, and the shouts and cheers of hundreds of athletes, the BC Summer Games were opened Thursday evening in Langley. Thousands of young athletes and coaches representing eight zones from around the province poured into McLeod Athletic Park just after 7 p.m. They were greeted by everyone from B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, to local MLAs and mayors, to elders of the Kwantlen First Nation. Those marching in were excited and a little sleep deprived. Elora Hipwell, 12, carried in the banner for the Kootenays with her teammates on her district’s girls softball team. They won the right to carry the banner and led their team by
Troy Landreville/Langley Advance
Zone 2’s Thompson-Okanagan sailing team flew its colours during the parade of athletes. winning a game of Simon Says, she explained. In the grandstands, parents, grandparents and siblings eagerly snapped pictures. Erin and Matt Craig from Naramatta, in the ThompsonOkanagan Zone (2), were there to cheer for their daughter Hayden. The BC Summer Games are important to the whole fam-
ily, Matt said. He and Erin both played volleyball in the Games as teens, and they later met at a national-level game. “It was our social network for years and years,” he said. Their oldest daughter Jamie competed in the last edition of the Games. Alyssah Carter of Delta had her grandparents Joan and Dave, and mom Deborah, in the stands cheering for her under an orange
banner supporting Fraser RiverDelta girls rugby. Things have been “a little bit crazy” in the runup to the Games, Deborah said. “They were so excited this morning they couldn’t stand still,” she said of the team. Kevin Kelly of the Kwantlen First Nation welcomed the athletes to his people’s traditional territory, and reminded them that the word Kwantlen means “tireless runner.” “We do this for our children,” he said, wishing that all the athletes have good luck and make new friends during their time in Langley. Kelly and a group of elders sang a river song, in honour of the return of paddling and rowing events to the Games for the first time in more than a decade. As one elder added, it was also “to make sure the river doesn’t get hungry.” Campbell, Township Mayor Rick Green, and Games president Michael Jackstien also welcomed the athletes, before the athletes took their oath and the torch was officially lit.