MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- Heading into the Saskatchewan Summer Games, it would have been difficult to find two athletes more favoured to win medals for Team South West than Ademide Adewumi and Zayden Anderson.
The Moose Jaw duo had put together brilliant seasons on the track and field scene leading up to the Games, and it seemed like it would be just a matter of showing up and getting the job done when the time came.
So when athletes picked up gold medals in their respective events on Thursday as South West used the athletics competition to vault into third place in the medal standings, it wasn’t much of a surprise.
South West had 11 gold, nine silver and 11 bronze for 31 medals heading into action Friday, five more than fourth-place Parkland Valley. Regina is running away with the medal haul with 48 gold and 97 medals, while Saskatoon is second with 23 gold and 82 medals.
Anderson was a double medalist on the track, winning bronze in the 100 metres in 11.83 seconds, two tenths back of gold medalist and South West teammate Kyler Duclos of Swift Current.
Things were nowhere near as close in Anderson’s specialty, though, as he torched the field in the 110m hurdles in a time of 16.14 to finish a full second ahead of silver medalist and South West teammate Jackson Tuplin of Swift Current.
Adewumi was similarly as dominant in the shot put and has shown vast improvement over her performances at high school provincials a little over a month ago, clearing 12.75 metres to finish well over a metre ahead of silver medalist Camryn Nelson of Parkland Valley.
Duclos and Tuplin were also double medalists for South West, with Duclos taking triple jump gold and Tuplin landing bronze in the pole vault.
Lumsden’s Jenna Conrad was the gold medalist in the 1,500 metres, while Swift Current’s Lyla Thiessen claimed silver in the 100m hurdles, Dilke’s Hailee Woodhouse was the bronze medalist in the 100m and Swift Current’s Colter Folk was the bronze medalist in the 1,500m.
Track and field competition continues through Saturday.
The South West male basketball team went unbeaten through their round robin and are into the semifinal on Friday night.
South West took an 82-47 win over Parkland, 77-48 win over Prairie Central and 71-62 win over Regina to finish first in Pool B. They were to take on Saskatoon in the semifinal on Friday night, followed by the medal round on Saturday afternoon.
The South West female basketball team went winless in their round robin, falling 47-28 to Parkland Valley, 60-34 to Prairie Central and 81-25 to Regina. They face Lakeland in the seventh place game Saturday.
The South West female soccer team will be playing for a bronze medal on Saturday afternoon.
South West defeated Team North 4-0 and fell to Regina 2-1 in round robin action before winning their quarter-final matchup 3-0 over Prairie Central.
That sent South West into the semifinal on Friday evening, where they dropped a 2-0 decision to Saskatoon. As a result, they’ll play for bronze against Parkland Valley on Saturday morning, with Saskatoon taking on Regina for gold.
The South West baseball team will be playing in the fifth place game after posting a 1-2 round robin record.
South West opened the tournament with a 20-13 win over Lakeland before falling 10-3 to Regina and losing a heartbreaker 12-11 to Parkland to drop out of the medal race.
They’ll wrap up their Games appearance against Rivers West on Saturday morning.
The South West female beach volleyball teams didn’t have a lot of luck in their round robin tournaments Thursday and Friday, as both South West 1 (Hailey Venn and Evelyn White) and South West 2 (Harlow Ryba and Isabella Flanagan) both went 0-3 in their preliminary rounds.
Both teams were in the consolation round on Friday afternoon.
Be sure to keep an eye on www.saskgames.ca/summer for all the results and Games information.
