For some athletes, going to the B.C. Summer Games might be a little nerve wrecking, but Bowen Island resident Tobin Sparling was taking it all in stride just a short time before the competition.
He was set to head to the Games in Nanaimo, which were held July 17 to 20. The biennial competition is meant to prepare both emerging athletes and trained coaches for higher levels of competition.
“I was really surprised because it’s my first year and everybody else has been doing track since at least Grade 5,” said Sparling of his fellow competitors before the event. A fledgling double athlete in both javelin and triple jump, Sparling trains with the Norwesters Track and Field Club in North Vancouver.
“I have only been part of a track and field club for four months now,” he noted.
His mom Tiffanee Scorer reported that Sparling did well at the Games.
“He did really well. His main sport is javelin, he came fifth in the province essentially, which was really good because he only just started javelin four or five months ago and he’s younger than the others too.
They’ve got two age groups together and he was in the younger half, so he did very well and loved it. He also did triple jump, he got a personal best, well he got a personal best in both of them. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, he loved the whole thing and he made lots of new friends. It was definitely a highlight for him of the year of track and field.”
Sparling has been doing javelin for four months and started training in triple jump less than three months ago.
“Javelin I just find really fun, ever since I started doing it, I found it really fun and really,” he said. “And triple jump, I wasn’t originally asked to do it because I didn’t qualify, but then when they realized that I guess they didn’t have enough people competing in it or something, they just put me in it as well.”
More than 2,500 athletes, ranging from 11 to 18 years of age, were registered to compete in 19 different sports at the Games. Sparling, who turns 14 this year, said he wasn’t nervous about the Games and was heading into the competitions hoping to achieve a personal best.
“I know I won’t do the best that everybody else is doing but I hopefully will do my best,” he said.
Two more residents of Bowen Island were also set to compete. Mait Davis, 12, another newcomer to the games, was racing in an Optimist, a single-handed sailing boat in the sailing competitions.
Before the Games he said he was really excited to be going. Davis has been sailing for almost six years, and competes with the North Shore Sailing Team.
“I train once a week at West Van Yacht Club,” he said.
“And I go to all the regattas in the B.C. circuit, which is like one or two a month.”
Aaron Johnstone, head coach of the Vancouver-Squamish U14 boys rugby team, was leading his team to the games.
