Lethbridge athletes receive send-off to Canada Summer Games and Commonwealth Games

By Lethbridge Herald on July 28, 2022.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward University of Lethbridge women's rugby coach Graeme Moffat felt he has compiled the best team possible for the Canada Summer Games in Niagra.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge Sport Council hosted a send-off for local area athletes competing in the Canada Summer Games and the Commonwealth Games on Thursday at City Hall.

There will be 19 athletes competing at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in the Niagara Region from Aug. 6-21.

The list includes Jacob Sargent in volleyball, Angelina-Ellis Toddington (Wrestling), Caitlyn Bailes (hammer throw), MacKenzie Kennedy (triple jump), Xavier Crosby ( discus), Jaime Thomas (coach), Andreas Troschke (hammer throw), Coaldale’s Wendy Nelson as a coach, Courtnay Farrington (road cycling manager), Heidi Shaw (Rugby 7s manager), Graeme Moffat (Rugby 7s coach), Naomi Leam (swimming Special Olympics and  Pincher Creek’s Mathais Gelber (triathlon) and  Payton Shields in wrestling.

Magrath’s Dave Hansen, Grace Hansen and Delaney Gibb, Abby Graves and Treydon Barton of Raymond will all be in basketball.

For Moffat, he’ll be coaching the Rugby 7s girls team in the first week of competition and thought it was fantastic send off for the athletes

“I think it’s amazing to see so many athletes and coaches and managers come together from all different sports which looks to be an amazing experience that we have and that part’s particularly exciting to be in the same athlete village cheering on other Alberta sports and athletes from all across the province,” he said.

“It’s been well communicated the friendships that will be formed over this trip which will last a lifetime. I think that’s amazing.”

Moffat said it’s been an intense training block since March.

“So we’ve picked what we believe is the best athletes that we have in the province to go and compete at the games,” he said.

Identification camps were ran in Calgary, Lethbridge and  Edmonton to form the roster.

“The girls, they’ve  been physically training hard,” he said.

“Tactically (and) technically, we’ve been trying to put together the best staff that we can. We’ve got some amazing coaches and managers on our program and hopefully the girls are all set.”

Lethbridge Volleyball Club’s Sargent will be playing with the men’s volleyball team and is excited to be travelling to Niagara to compete at the highest level in Canada.

“This is kind of one of my first big exposures to the national scale of competition like leading back from COVID,” he said.

“This is the first kind of like national competition with Team Alberta that I’ve been able to compete in and yeah I think that’s going to give me great exposure moving forward to the level I need to be at.”

There will be 5,000 athletes from across the country competing for spots on the podium from across Canada.

There are six Lethbridge athletes at the Commonwealth Games  from July 28- Aug. 8 in Birmingham, Eng.

Jillian Weir is competing in hammer throw, Liz Gleadle in Javelin, Sarah Orban in cycling, while Christa and Kelly Deguchi will be in Judo and Keyara Wardly in Rugby 7s.

Susan Eymann ,Lethbridge Sport Council executive director, said, “The number and variety of sports being represented by our athletes, coaches and managers is a testament to the quality of sport programming being offered in Lethbridge.”