Part 1 in a four-part series
Quesnel athletes dominated the powdered trails at the Special Olympics national snowshoe championships.
Three snowshoe specialists from our city travelled to Calgary as part of the larger multi-sport extravaganza, and all three came home with medals and built on their own benchmarks. Jessica Colpits, Scott Jonasson and Cory Melnychuk represented team B.C., led by Quesnel coach Richard Lindstrom.
“The athletes were chosen to attend based on their results from the 2023 Special Olympics B.C. Winter Games held in Kamloops,” said Lindstrom. “The athletes signed contracts of commitment and training in July, 2023. Preparations began in July with dryland training and personal training. When we finally had snow we were training at both the high school (Correlieu Secondary) and Hallis Lake Ski & Snowshoe Trails. Our athletes also had video support and encouragement from Team BC coach Janny Jung who lives in Vernon and attended the games with the athletes.”
Not only did the three Quesnel Special Olympians get a personal best (PB), while at the nationals, all three set PBs in every event in which they competed.
Jonasson snowshoed in the 200m (5th overall), 400m (missed the bronze by 1.6 seconds with a time of 1:33.171), and missed the gold medal by less than half a second in the 100m with a PB of 17.563 seconds (gold time: 17.091; bronze time 17:169). He did make the podium in the men’s 4-by-100m relay, earning the silver.
“From the bottom of my heart, this is my first National Games, and I want to dedicate it to each and every single one of you, those who have helped me and been there for me,” Jonasson said. “And I am also dedicating this to my family back home, because I know they’re proud of me.”
Colpitts came back from Calgary with a pair of medals. She won silver in the women’s 4-by-100m relay, then came 5th in her category in the 100m sprint, missing the podium by only 2.1 seconds with a PB time in her finals of 28.506 seconds. In her 200m finals, it was another story, where Colpitts set a time of 1:05.43 which led the nation, sending her to the pinnacle of the podium.
The biggest local medal count of the Canadian Special Olympics belonged to Melnychuk who won bronze in the 100m, silver in the 200m and again in the men’s 4-by-100m relay, and won the gold in his 400m finals with a time of 2:56.112.
“I am extremely proud of these athletes and their accomplishments at the Games,” said Lindstrom. “I found myself on my phone constantly awaiting the online results during the Games. It was the first National Games for Scott and Jessica. Cory has been to more than two.”
