Rachel Siemens has some travelling to do this summer, thanks to an impressive showing at last weekend’s Canadian Weightlifting Championships in Edmonton.
Siemens, a member of the Pacific Coast Nomads Weightlifting Club, won the bronze medal in the women’s 69-kilogram class. The third-place showing helped qualify Siemens, a kinesiology student at the University of Victoria, for the World University Games in Kazan, Russia, in July.
Also competing at nationals last weekend were Victoria’s Gabriel Auclair and Christina Verhagen. Auclair finished fourth in the men’s heavyweight 125-kilogram class, while Verhagen was second in the women’s 63-kilogram class.
Midget Royals name coaches
The South Island Royals have solidified their coaching staff for the 2013-14 B.C. Major Midget Hockey League season.
The midget Royals announced Wednesday that head coach Geoff Grimwood will return for his second season behind the bench, and he’ll be joined by newly signed assistant coach Rob Milliken.
For the 2011-12 season, Milliken coached the Victoria Racquet Club’s bantam triple-A team and he was an assistant coach with gold-medal winning Team B.C. at the recent Western Canada Under-16 Challenge Cup.
The Royals, who finished seventh last season and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, will begin tryouts in August.
Soccer players on the rise
Two former Lower Island Soccer Association players are back with their club teams after a busy week at a prospects camp for Canada’s women’s national team and Under-20 team.
Emma Fletcher, a Gordon Head Soccer Association product, and Katie Kraeutner, a graduate of the Peninsula Soccer Association, just returned from the women’ EXCELeration camp in Morgantown, West Virginia. The week-long camp featured 18 players between the ages of 17 and 23 who will be in the running for spots on the senior national team and U-20 squad.
Fletcher now rejoins her Vancouver Whitecaps team, while Kraeutner is spending the summer playing for the Peninsula Co-op Highlanders before returning to NCAA action with the University of Nebraska.
This weekend, tennis anyone?
Tennis players and wannabe tennis players on the Island are invited to the Henderson Park Recreation Centre (2291 Cedar Hill Cross Road) on Saturday for the annual Family Day of Tennis.
The one-day event, hosted by the South Island Tennis Association, is used to introduce the sport to those in the community who have always wanted to play it.
The event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and individuals can come any time during the event. There is no age limit and the South Island Tennis Association will provide racquets and balls. There will also be association members on hand to offer free instruction and answer any questions.
For more information, call 778-433-1457.
