Illness, logistical problems, Team NS overshadow positives on day two

By Dylan Matthias, Sports Editor

It was a tough day for the Canada Games. An athlete was taken to hospital with a serious illness, bedbugs were found at the Tim Horton’s athlete’s satellite village, Nova Scotia dropped a second straight hockey game and Sunday webcasts crashed in several sports.

The problems overshadowed a few positives, though: huge attendance at the Canada Games Centre for gymnastics was a nice surprise, and Citadel High filled up for the Nova Scotia wheelchair basketball game. TSN’s broadcast of long-track speed-skating was much better than their hockey broadcast the day before and was a pleasure to watch.

The top story of the day started mid-afternoon with a surprise rescheduling of a Manitoba wheelchair basketball game without an explanation. The Gazette poked around a bit, and found out there was a serious illness in the Manitoba camp. As we tried to confirm the story, Canada Games held a press conference informing media that the unnamed athlete in question had been taken to hospital and was being “aggressively treated.” Obviously, concern for the Manitoban is high, and he’ll be out the rest of the Games.

An hour later, Canada Games had to issue another unfortunate release, informing media that bedbugs had been found at the Tim Horton’s Children’s Camp in Antigonish being used as a satellite village for skiers in Wentworth.

Around the same time, Team N.S. hockey limped to an 8 – 3 loss against probably the easiest team in group A, British Columbia. Nathan MacKinnon finally scored, but Steven Reinhart scored twice again and fans at the Metro Centre went home disappointed again. The Bluenose wheelchair basketball team also got smashed by Ontario, 74 – 49.

Ontario won the aforementioned women’s team gymnastics event, and silver and bronze medallists B.C. and Quebec ended up dancing together in the staging room.

Nova Scotia’s women’s curling team did get off to a very good start on their first day, so it wasn’t all bad news for N.S.

Quebec and Alberta continued to dominate the long-track oval, with Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu, Francois Déry and Laurent Dubreuil sweeping the men’s 1500-metre and Jennessa Kemp, Kate Hanly and Tori Spence (of B.C.) taking the women’s 1500-metre. Izzy Dilger won the women’s 500-metre in the morning.

Quebec also did well on the short-track, with Ann-Véronique Michaud and Namasthée Harris-Gauthier placing one-two in the 1500-metre. Courtney Shymr got the bronze. Maxime Gauthier, Benoît Thériault and Yoan Gauthier swept the men’s 1500-metre.

Meagan Fiselier took gold in the women’s half-pipe, while Aaron MacKay won the men’s. No Nova Scotians made the finals. Alberta swept the men’s 15-kilometre biathlon podium with brothers Scott and Christian Gow winning gold and bronze, respectively. Audrey Vaillancourt won the women’s 12.5-kilometre event.