A golden day for Team NL!  Congratulations to trampoline gymnast, Gleb Evstigneev on his gold medal performance last night.  It was wonderful to see so many of our NL teams in attendance and cheering on Gleb’s performance, WELL DONE!  I am sure Gleb and coach Steve Nolan really appreciated it.  It was also especially nice to see Gleb’s mom, Marta, there to take in the excitement. Of course, also busy today were many of our other first week sports. Please see the sport reports below for further details.  

Lastly, I want to thank our men’s hockey coaches who allowed me to sit in on yesterday’s pregame meeting.  As a coach educator it was interesting to witness how these coaches prepare our players for game play.  There was time spent on instructive video analysis and even an inspirational video.  These coaches are fine examples of the effort all our Team NL coaches have put into preparing our athletes for these Games.  Hey athletes, make tomorrow your day to thank your coaches… and managers.       

Noah Bolton was back on the ice today in the races that determined the final standings in the 500m event. He started strong, laying down his best time ever in this event, clocking in at 48.734. His second 500m started out even faster, though he lost speed when he narrowly avoided being taken out by a fallen competitor. Nevertheless, some fancy footwork and determination had him crossing the line in 48.855, good for 42nd overall. 

The afternoon signalled the start of the 1000m events. Noah skated one preliminary heat, again setting a personal best time (1:38.842...nearly 2 seconds faster than his previous best). He's off to the top bracket heat tomorrow, starting at 9:54am local time. 

With no game today, the team took advantage of the rest period and time to spend with one another. As a team, they spent time at the Grant Thornton booth, meeting and sharing their love of the sport with fans.  Grab your thunder sticks and join them tomorrow as they play in the consolation game. 

--One, two, three, four, Newfoundland and Labrador!-- 

Biathlon completed their last and longest individual race today. Team NL continued to show improvement. Today they held an internal team competition for first choice of the extra pins they received. Honours would go to the top marksman of the day. Congratulations to Basia who shot 60% on 20 shots. That is also our top shooting in the first 3 races. Considering it was -12 and windchill -17, with shivering an issue, that was a great performance (the winnning female only shot 70%). 

Next up are the relays. With temperatures expected to stay cold or colder, let’s hope the athletes and spectators have packed extra thermal layers. 

After a tough 4-0 loss to Team NS last night in the qualifying game, Team NL Mens hockey were back on the ice to face Team Yukon for the 9th/10th place game to close out their Canada Games competition. The team could have easily folded the tent after a heart break loss but they showed up to play and ended up prevailing 7-3. Carter Arnold got the nod in the pipes and made the saves he needed to preserve the win. Noah Boland picked up a pair of goals, with singles from Mason Strong, Carter Bromley, 'Bob' Ben O'Brien, and Brody Harnum rounded out the scoring. Overall the team finishes with a 5-1 record and won Pool C. Phenom Gavin McKenna had a goal and two assists for the Yukon in the loss. After the game, the team was in high spirits and happy to end of on the winning note, improving their team placing from the 2019 Games. Way to go Team NL. 

Another day of table tennis at the convention centre for TeamNL. The male and female singles started today and will conclude tomorrow. Both Ciela and Divine have started off strong going 3-2 in singles. Peter Quinlan has started off 2-2 and Carter Walters 1-3. 

More matches will be played tomorrow!

Photo Credit: Nash Alonto

Day 5, Our final competition day!  Our last two competitors were up today.  Ryan Crocker and Alex Ryan who both competed in the heavyweight +68kg kumite division. 

Ryan was up first and had 4 great fights! Ryan won his first fight against Ontario by a score of 3:2, but narrowly lost his following 3 matches versus Quebec by a score of 4:2,  British Columbia by a score of 3:2 and to Alberta by a score of 2:1. Some very close fights by all means and it really shows that Ryan belongs among the best of the best! 

Next up in the opposite pool for the +68kg division was Alex Ryan. Alex again had 4 great fights defeating Northwest Territories by a score of 8:0 and defeating Quebece by a score of 1:0. Unfortunately, he lost to Nova Scotia by a score of 3:2 and to Alberta by a score of 4:0. Alex finished 5th overall and was one win away from competing in the Bronze Medal Match! So close!! 

Tonight, the athletes plan to enjoy a bit of free time to explore the village and they are looking forward to the next couple of days to take in a few other sports and cheer on other Team NL members. Our competition experience was a great one, we will take home a lot of great memories that we will always remember especially since this was karate's first time at the Canada Games!!

In their final round robin curling game TeamNL were defeated by Team Quebec by a score of 7-1.  The girls finished with a record of 1-4 and were slated to play their final game later in the day to finalize their final placing. 

The girls continue to remain positive and realize that wins and losses can sometimes be determined by just inches. But it is this challenge that inspires everyone to keep playing this great game of curling!  

The girls finished off their Canada Games experience with a 9-6 victory over Team Yukon later this evening. 

It was great to finish the Canada Games with a victory and now they will spend the next couple of days supporting their fellow NL athletes who are still competing. This is what the Canada Games experience is all about !

The trampoline team continued their strong week with a fourth place finish in the team competition. Overall Team NL improved on their 2019 7th place showing and has demonstrated the sport of trampoline is alive and well in Newfoundland and Labrador. Congrats to the team on providing us with such an exceptional performance and such exciting entertainment. Enjoy your time off to explore what the rest of the Games have to offer.

At a capacity filled venue, gymnastics continues to be a highly sought after ticket for the spectators. And after watching these ladies show their incredible skills, you can see why it is such a hot ticket at the Games. 

Team NL featured Sarah Pace, Megan Skinner and Jorah Hiscock all took part in the All Around competition finishing in the top 25 out of 64 competitors. There were highlights including Jirah’s 9.0 on bars, Megan’s rocking acro series on beam and Sara’s 9.237 on bars. 

Today both the Male and Female Squash teams were busy with 4 team encounters. Our boys played Alberta and Yukon while the Girls played Ontraio and Yukon. All our athletes were victorious in their couts against the Yukon.

Tomorrow the Boys continue play against New Brunswick at 3:00pm while the Girls take them on at 8:00pm.