Swim Team ramps up for BC Senior Games

The 2013 Sunshine Coast Senior Swim Team together with coach Karen Apples, at the Sechelt Aquatic Centre. Photo submitted

The Sunshine Coast Senior Swim Team is in full swing preparing for the 26th Annual BC Senior Games, to be held in Kamloops August 20 to 24.

A lone swimmer represented the Sunshine Coast in 2008. This year’s games will see ten Coast swimmers competing: Bob Sangster, Bruce McDonald, Fred Lerner, Manfred Baur, Tom West, Warren McCrimmon, Christine Chandler, Joan Humphries, Lucille Oakey and Mary Pinniger.

The team participates for the fun of competition and enjoys the opportunity to meet athletes from all over British Columbia. Although some of the 2012 participants will not be competing this year, new and able talent have joined and hope to maintain the tradition of bringing a healthy share of medals to the Coast.

Last year the team returned with 43 medals:  26 gold, 11 silver and 8 bronze. During the five years that the Sunshine Coast Swim Team has competed, it has garnered a total of 149 medals – 66 gold, 42 silver and 41 bronze.

The volunteer-based BC Seniors Games Society, formed in 1987 with the assistance of the Provincial Government, now administers one of the province’s largest sports events. Approximately 3,500 participants aged 55 and over compete in the multi-sport games, which are hosted by a different community each year.

Sport and recreation development for seniors has a direct bearing on the quality of life for older British Columbians and for the province as a whole.  Activity of both mind and body has a beneficial effect on the health and well being of older adults.

The Sunshine Coast team forms 50% of the Zone 4 contingent. Zone 4, the largest in the province, includes athletes from Burnaby, Delta, Ladner, New Westminster, North and West Vancouver, Richmond, Tsawwassen, Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, and the Sunshine Coast.

Submitted