The municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta extinguished the cauldron to the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games on Sunday August 16, 2015 putting an end to a successful games for Alberta athletes.
Rowing at the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games featured some of this nation’s best U19 rowers with the likes of national team athletes Patrick Keane of British Columbia and Kendal Messier in attendance. While the competition from the four Western provinces was fierce, the 17 rowers who represented the Alberta Rowing Association (ARA) at these Games held their own.
The ARA entered athletes in all 12 events that were contested in the rowing component of the Games. While the ARA was unable to win gold in any of these events, Alberta rowers did win 6 silver and 4 bronze medals good enough to finish second overall in the Men’s overall point championship (British-Columbia finished first) and third in the Women’s overall point championship (British-Columbia 1st and Saskatchewan second). More impressively however was the fact that every Alberta rower who competed at the Games returned home with a medal of some color.
With the 2015 WCSG now a memory the focus for the ARA now turns to the Canada Summer Games (CSG) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. At the 2017 CSG, Alberta athletes can expect even stronger competition than they witnessed in Fort McMurray as all 10 provinces and 3 territories will be represented in Winnipeg. Let the results from Fort McMurray show however that Alberta rowers are ready for the challenge.
The Alberta Rowing Association wants to thank all the officials, volunteers and technical delegates who were instrumental in making the rowing portion of the Games so successful.
The 17 Athletes who represented the ARA at the Games are as follows
Brielle Thorson Katrina Wittenberg
Hannah Kennedy Erin Watchman
Emma Kelly Aaron Harrower
Claire Hinse Sarah Power
Veronique Ulrich Phil Kirker
Curtis Holloway Nick Morrison
Tavis Enno Eric Hohnstein
Liam Vanderbeek Kyle Pollock
Kamran Ramj