14 medals in one day for Team BC

It was a medal haul for Team BC on Wednesday at the 2015 Canada Winter Games with Team BC bringing home 14 medals.

The day started with badminton finals where the Men’s Doubles team of Joshua Liu (Vancouver) and Duncan Yao (Richmond) battled their way to the podium in the bronze medal match of the men’s doubles, beating team Manitoba in three sets.

James Ho (Surrey) won bronze in the badminton singles event against an opponent from Manitoba who was twice his height.  “When I came to the Canada Winter Games my goal was to reach the semi finals and I did that,” he said. “I didn’t expect to actually medal. Fourth would have been a really great accomplishment for me. I more than achieved my goal by winning the bronze and it feels really good.”

In figure skating, Prince George athlete, Justin Hampole, was second coming to the free program after a personal best short program on Tuesday.  He skated another clean program and earning a combined total of 91.88 points to place third for the bronze medal.

Justin said after, “I never expected to win a medal.  My goal was 90 points and I achieved that and I am so happy to have won bronze.  It has been a great experience.”

Olivia Gran of Kelowna earned silver in the pre-novice female event and teammate Alisa Lyesina of Victoria finished fifth.
 
In the Special Olympics Level 2 competition Matthew Lai (Richmond) earned gold and his teammate Eric Pahima (Vancouver) earned silver.

The Judo competition got underway at UNBC and Team BC showed their strength and skill earning three medals  including a silver for local Prince George athlete, Lavanna Lass in the women’s 63kg, a silver for Ario Nishimura (Richmond) in men’s 73kg and a bronze for Leo Goldberg (Langley) in men’s under 60kg.

Team BC was in contention for medals in individual squash with Michelle Garceau (Surrey) winning the female final and taking home the gold medal.  In the men’s individual competition, Matthew Toth (Richmond) and Gavin Maxwell (Victoria) squared off for bronze with Toth taking the victory.

The team event was in full swing at table tennis and Team BC earned a silver in the men’s team event  for  Frank Liao (Vancouver), Michael Luo (Burnaby), Mike Yue (New Westminster) and a bronze in the female team event for Natasha Carr-Harris (Vancouver), Leanne Lee (Burnaby), Ivy Liao (Vancouver).

The mixed doubles team of Kyle Carragher (Port Coquitlam), Curtis Gerein (Kelowna), Poppy Quinlan (Maple Ridge), Emily Schmidt (Kamloops) earned bronze at trampoline.

Impressive results today have Team BC with 63 medals overall, placing the team third in the medal standings behind Quebec and Ontario.