Team Alberta track team selected

With the end of April staring them in the face, the Indigenous Sport Council (Alberta) was pressed to complete its qualifying rounds in all 17 sports, involving a slate of approximately 760 athletes registered for the 1997 North American Indigenous Games this August in Victoria.

As the qualifiers were winding down, one of the later events to transpire was the April 11 to 13 track and field meet at the University of Lethbridge where approximately 250 athletes competed for 80 spots. Aboriginal athletes form across Alberta converged on the university to duel it out, with only first-place winners being selected.

On Friday, the opening day of the meet, Edmonton's Darryl McKay managed to win the grueling 10km run over difficult, hilly country along the Oldman River where the west side hill never fails to present a great challenge.

Despite some wind gusts which throw off an athlete's timing, events proceeded as scheduled. As was the with the 1995 qualifiers two years earlier in Edmonton, certain athletes repeated as multiple winners with names such as Bruised Head, Lapatack, Gadwa, Goodstriker, Hambler and Pederson cropping up again and again. In the seniors categories, two particular athletes showed their colors. Pauline Huppie, a Metis and sports council board member, and Chet Collins of the Cold Lake First Nation, were multiple winners.

There were, of course, a few fresh, new faces that surprised. One of those was Lanni Scout, a bantam girl whose track times were better than those of the older midget and juvenile girls as well as the bantam and midget boys.

And, young Todd Bruised Head, a midget, won no less than six golds in track as did junior competitor from Grand Prairie, Jessie Hambler, who had won two gold and two bronze at the 1995 Indigenous Games in Minnesota. One cannot overlook middle distance runner Steve Pederson of Calgary who won the 1500 and 10,000 m runs with the 1500 proving a thrilling finish as he and Lance White streaked down the homestretch, neck and neck. Pederson won in a time of 4:20 compared with White's very close 4:22.

The council's director, Ted Hodge son, said Team Alberta will have very strong entries in the boxing and Tae Kwon Do.

"Wee have some good boxers, like Cody Kelly and Kenny Giroux who are gold medallists and provincial Golden Gloves.

The sport council, added Hodgson, is arranging for a boxing camp in Bonnyville this summer and, perhaps, a fight card as well.