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DECEMBER 2013 www.pgfreepress.com | newsline: 250.564.0005
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Groundbreaking for new Delta Hotel in Prince George
Victoria kicks in for Games Allan Wishart allanw@pgfreepress.com The 2015 Canada Winter Games are getting closer. Some venues have undergone major changes, and on Friday, the first of those sites was officially opened. A plaque in the biathlon area at Otway Nordic Centre was unveiled by Pippa Roots of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club and Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Coralee Oakes. While the facility may be open, it’s not quite ready to use yet, says ski club president Kevin Pettersen. “We still have one wall on the shooting range to be finished,” he said at the ceremony. “We’re in good shape for the trail system, but we ran out of fasteners for the one wall.” The biathlon range has been moved from a location back in the woods (as it were) to a spot closer to Otway Road, with a large berm acting as a shield. “That is a six-metre high wall of earth,” Pettersen said. “It took a lot of work, but it’s what was needed.” The Otway Nordic Centre will be the site for biathlon and cross-country skiing during the Games, which start Feb. 15, 2015. “We have a couple of test events coming up,” Pettersen said. “We have the Western Biathlon Championships here at the beginning of February, and then the Western Canadians for cross-country skiing a couple of weeks later. “We’ll have about 500 athletes here for the skiing, which is actually more than we will have for the Games, so it will be a great test of the facility.” The biathlon range has 30 shooting positions, which he says makes it easier to hold large events. “You can have more people on the course at the same time, instead of having to stack them up if you didn’t have enough positions.” The unveiling capped a busy day for Oakes and local MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris. “We’ve been on a tour of the venues,”
Allan WISHART/Free Press Pippa Roots, left, of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club and Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Coralee Oakes unveil a plaque Friday morning at the Otway Nordic Centre, officially opening the biathlon venue which will be used for the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Oakes said, “and they are looking fantastic. People always hear I’m the minister of sport and they ask, ‘So what is your sport?’ “I have to admit I don’t really have one. I’m not really athletic, but then I remember spending a lot of time cross-country skiing around Quesnel when I was younger. It’s just that you don’t think of that as a sport. It was part of growing up in the region.” Oakes also took the occasion to announce a couple of provincial grants for the Games, including $125,000 for test events and $150,000 for the Northern Sport Strategy. “The strategy is an important program for us,” she said. “It aims to increase participation in sports, and help support high-performance athletes.”
Morris said that while the Games are still a little more than a year away, that time will go fast. “We started planning security for the 2010 Olympics, when I was with the RCMP, about 10 years before, and it still seemed we didn’t have enough time at the end.” Morris was also looking forward to the Games from a personal standpoint. “We live just across the river from here, and I’m looking forward to hearing the cheers from this venue during the Games.” Games CEO Stu Ballantyne said while Otway is the first of the facilities requiring major work to be officially opened, it won’t be the last. “We’re looking now at an official opening
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for Kin 1 on Feb. 15, and there will be a couple of other sites which will also be finished around then. “The Outdoor Ice Oval will probably be the last facility opened, since they’re still waiting for a building to be finished.” Two test events, for wheelchair basketball and artistic gymnastics, have already taken place and things will get busy in the new year. “We have 10 test events in about a 12-week period,” Ballantyne said. “The last couple will be figure skating next November, and longtrack speed skating at the oval. “That event won’t take place until January, but that’s good because it will be a test of the venue and facilities as they’ll be a month later for the Games.”
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