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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1997-08-06, Page 14Page 14.. " Timed -Advocate, August 6, 1997 This Week in Sports... • Exeter's Steve Roy -- a race riot - page 15 • The Mites prove their might - page 16 McIntyre takes Oakwood tennis tourney By Craig Bradford TA Reporter GRAND BEND - Kristi McIntyre swept Me women's . side:of the 8th annual Oakwood . Inn -Tennis Championship by taking boththe singles and doubles -titles. . - The Grand Bend native won the singles crown last.season -and paired with London's Kim. Fowler for this year's doubles .title. Other winners, -men's: singles — Mark Sopoco of St-. Thomas' • 'defeated London's Bob Stevenson -6-2, 6-3; doubles — London's HenryHilhorstrrom Ewer over Stevenson/Brian Mooney 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; „women's: McIntyre beat,Ayl-mer'.s Chris Roovers 2 -0 -(called due to rain); -doubles Mclntyre/Fowler over. London's Nancy Engelhardt/Shelley Galvin 6-2, 6-4.- • Oakwood tennis pro David - Bartlam said there were about 60 people: from throughout southern Ontario at the 'A' level amateur tournament. . The Oakwood Tennis Club has between 40 and 50 family memberships. Bartlam said 'lessons are offered all - summer and there is a league to suit 'everyone. A family membership costs $200 per year, or non-members can pay $10 per - hour "for .court time:-For.more information call the -pro shop at 238-2972 or Oakwood at 238-2324. Hand -eye challenge. Grand- Bend's Kristi McIntyre, 15,. won both the women's - singles arid the women's doubles (with London's Kim Fowler) at the 8th annual Oakwood Inn Tenriis Championships on Sunday. Express lose tough one to Strathroy 6-5 STRATHROY - Sometimes play- ing good ball just isn't enough. - That's what the Exeter Express Senior Men's Hardball team found out on Thursday at.Strathroy- when they were edged 6-5. ' Exeter started the scoring in the . second inning after Marty. Merner singled: stole second and then scored on a hit by Paul Smith. Strathroy scored three inthe sec- ond. on two homers. though thg match was played in an -undersized. diamond. . • The -Express scored three of their own- in the third on a hit by Fred Gregus, a walk to' Rick Boon and a towering homerun by Merrier. Ex- eter added to their lead in the four h when Bill Glover singled in - Terry Genttnefterhe doubled. Strathray took the lead. for good 'and finished the scoring in the fifth by scoring three on two long home- runs'. - Exeter starting, pitcher Dan Masse- put in.. a. complete game, striking out six. walking tour and giving up 11 hits. - - Exeter won two home games by forfeit . last week when London failed to show up. leaving their record at 7-12 •with their last game yesterday after press, a home tilt - versus Lakeside.- - _Call Sports Reporter Craig Bradford with your sports tips (519) 235-1331 • Fax (519) .235-0766 a Friedsburg tallysheet Skinner Dashwood's first Strong Man DASHWOOD - There was sports 'a plenty at the 26th an- nual Dashwood Friesburg Days, the feature event being • the first ever Strong Man competition. • Organizers decided to expand the annual Farmer's Walk competition into a four -event competition to flesh - out the area's strongest man title. Ten men competed in these events: the farmer's walk — the longest distance carrying two 204 Ib weights; the stone throw — longest distance throwing a 55 Ib stone; the sheaf throw — long- est distance throwing a 161 Ib sheave up and over a lad- der; the keg relay — the fastest to carry five 'kegs' 40 feet. Five points was awarded to first in each event, three for second and one for third. First place went to Zurich's Rick Skinner with 11 points; second was Grand Bend's Jason Hotson with eight points; a third place tie went to Dashwood's Paul Pittao and Jeff Benneweis with seven points each. Four teams put their pull to the test in the annual men's Tug -O -War competition. First went to Hayter's Turkey team and second was won by the Senior Sodbusters, both of Dashwood. Only two teams signed up for the women's Tug -O -War, with Dashwood's Bluewater Ladles taking firstand the Downtown•Dashwood squad bringing - • up the rear. - . The Dashwood Studs took first in the children's age 10- 16Tug-O-War with the Dashwood Panthers the only other team; The i0 and under Tug -O -War was won by the Blue- . water Juniors with the Dashwood Thunderbolts the only competition. Dashwood's Rob Hoffman strong armed his way to the 201 lbs and over men's arm wrestling title with runner-up Greg Becker. Other men's arm wrestling results (first, run- ner-up): 181 lbs -200 lbs — Dashwood's Blaine Pryce, Ted Hoffman; 161 lbs -180 lbs — Tim Hoffman, Randy Hoffman; 141 lbs -160 lbs — Zurich's Jody Laporte, James Lenging; 120 lbs -140 lbs — John Leibold, James Sherman. Wom- en's open class: Exeter's Kari Sue Kyle, Barb Reschke. Twenty-six shooters participated in the lawnbowling competition. The pair of Dianne and Glenn Lansenby won the 'A' flight with Exeter's Lia Snell taking second with her partner. Exeter's Jake Marks and Staffa's Jack Brintnell won the 'B' flight, with Kippen's Norma Coleman. part of the third place pair. Soberly Challenged won the Friedsburg Days, Co-ed. Slo-pitch Toumament 'A' Final by slipping by Part Wolves. 2-1 in a 10 inning thriller. The Smoke took the, 'B' final' over the coolers 6-4 and the Greater Dashwood Area team slammed Dumber and Dumber 16-3 for the 'C' title. Olympic rider graces Hearthstone Farm Chris Delia hopes to ride once more at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia By Craig Bradford T -A Reporter CLANDEBOYE - Chris Delia and his steed Silent Sam have - jumped many hurdles in • their ca- reers but • the highest and most re-'. warding have yet to come. The St. Catharines native and his horse are Canadian' Olympic Eques- trian Team members • and premier Canadian Grand Prix show jump-. ers. His career highlights include competing against the world's best jumpers at the '96 Atlanta Olym= pits and winning two '96 Canadian • World Qualifiers. the 550,000 Que- --'+-Writy and the 535,000 Biomont. • • Delia and Silent Sam barely missed. sweeping the third '96 Qualifier. the 550,000 Blainville, finishing second to the U.S.'s Jeffery Welles. Delia, 25, has spent much of the summer at Gail Lamb's Hearth- stone Farms outside Clandeboye. Delia and partner Candice Fischer stayed at the farm taking care of the stable while Lamb and husband Thomas Rylett, both architects, travelled to Spain. Delia and Fischer continue to scout out the area hoping to not only raise investors in his endeavor to become a bigger player on the world equestrian stage, but to es- tablish an equestrian centre in the London area because of its strong history in horsemanship. • Delia chose horses over be- coming a doctor (he has a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a Bach- elor of Science in biology from Kingston's Queen's University) and pursuing the piano (he's at the Gr. 10 level). "1 wasn't into being stationed in Regina after eight or nine years of work on getting to med school," Delia said from Lamb's living room last week, referring to the sort of situation he was faced with upon finding med school graduate work and later a full-time practice "And it meant giving up the thing I love most — it meant giving up horses." Bitten by the horse -loving fly at the age seven, Delia said he could never sec himself giving up horses, not even for the sake of his parents • • • who wanted flim to become a doc- tor. • His goals of representing Can- ada. at the highest levels of inter- national . show jumping and someday winning an Olympic med- al and a .world championship ,are too.glorious for him to give up. "( World • championship -level jumping) takes a lifetime of dedica- tion if you're lucky, he said. By • far the youngest .member on the Olympic team (he was at least 10 years younger than the other members). the Atlanta Games was Delia's and Silent Sam's first ever show at such a high level in only their second year on the national team. The top Canadian and in tfie top 25 in a field of 170 after the first -round with only eight faults and two downed rails, Delia said he was riding on cloud nine. "I had enough after that," he said. reminiscing with a smile. "I was ready to go.-.• - - Delia and Silet Sam started feel- ing the pressure in the second round. finishing with 16 faults and four rails after Delia decided to "at- tack the 'course." one that • was much more difficult than he and Si- lent Sam had ever jumped before. The roar of a 50.000 -strong crowd didn't help matters either. The third round found Delia and Silent Sam fall out of competition with 32 faults and eight rails. both rider and mount "strung out and. stressed." Delia said. "1t was a great experience nev- ertheless." he said. "I was thrown into a field of all legends — these were my absolute idols." His favorite rider of'all time. Ger- many's France Sloothak rode right before Delia in the first round, but the set-up .at Atlanta kept Delia from watching his hero. When there. was a great crash and a chor- us of disbelieving and alarmed noises from the crowd, Delia had to find out moments before his round •what had happened: Sloothak had taken .a tumble and punctured his wrist. "'That was a rude awakening for sure,". adding that "knock on wood" because he has yet to be hurt se- riously while in the ring. The Ger- man team -went 011 10 win: the Olympic show jumping team gold. Delia's goals are two fold — both in the sport and in business. Sport-wise..he hopes to qualify for the '98 'World. Championships in Ireland and the -2000 Sydney: Aus- tralia. Olympic Games. - '"I have a long way to go — I know that for sure." he .said of fin- ishing near the top of the heap -at those prestigious competitions. "What I want to achieve is a level of consistency that will put me with the best in the world." Business -wise; Delia. and Fischer hope to grow his stable of horses to where most world class jumpPpeers have theirs — to six i'rrand Prig level steeds. Right now Delia has, Silent Sam up to Grand Prix and is in the early stages of training two more horses out of his base- stable in Markham (he lives in Mis- sissauga). . Canada's preeminent jumper, Ian Miller. has six Grand Prix jumpers including perhaps Canada's most famous horsd. Big Ben. Delia said that is a feat that is "amazing for Canada." "I don't only want to follow in his footsteps, but exceed them," he said. • • Bringing together such a stable takes time. expertise and lots of money. •- "We're trying to gather investors together," he said.. "Get people in- terested in owning Grand Prix hors- es to -help us. realize our Olytnpic dream." Lamb helped by organizing a re- - cent meet -and -greet soiree at her farm for Delia with 50 London -area horse enthusiasts. - - But money and learning from the . best, like his mentor, Terrance 'Torchy' Millar. isn't enough to be- come the best. It all boils down to the relationship between the horse and rider. 'That's the whole essence of the sport." Delia said. "People spend a whole lifetime figuring that out." The rider and their horse must have trust, respect, and even love for one another. "You can't tell the horse what to .' Continued on page 15 Golden leap. Canadian Equestrian Team members Chris Delia and Silent Sam hope to tum their '96 Atlanta Olympic Games experience into future gold.