A good couple of weeks

It’s been a pretty good summer for local athletes.

Marissa Walter of Coldbrook and Britany MacArthur of Kentville both represented Nova Scotia at the Canadian Legion track and field championships in Oromocto, N.B.

Walter, who coach Charlie Scarrow describes as faster now than Jenna Martin, his former protégé now attending the University of Kentucky, was at the same age; placed second in both the 100 and 200 metre sprints. She ran a personal best 12.18 seconds – this is a 16-year-old – in the 100m, and followed with a personal best 24.96 in the 200m. She is only the second Nova Scotia female (Martin was the first) to break 25 seconds in the 200 while still of juvenile age.

MacArthur, 15, a provincial cross-country champion, ran a personal best 4:52.26 in the 1,500m and a personal best 10:30.55 in the 3,000m to place fourth in the country in both events. She ran the 800m anchor leg in the 1,600m relay, leading the Nova Scotia/ Nunavut team to a second-place finish.

Three Valley girls represented Nova Scotia at the national basketball championships in Burnaby, B.C.: Lindsay Harris of New Minas and Abbey Duinker of Cambridge were on the U-17 team, and Kira Pederson of Hantsport was on the U-15 team. Both teams ended up with bronze medals: the second year in a row Harris and Duinker won national bronzes – both girls were part of last year’s bronze medal-winning U-15 girls’ team. For Duinker, who also won U-15 bronze in 2005, it was her third bronze.

The Kentville Marlins turned in another good performance at summer swim provincials in Digby. The Marlins have shown steady improvement over the past three summers, from 336 points in 2005 to 716 points this year, good for their second straight Small Team High Point Award. Almost all the Marlins attending the meet swam personal bests, a number of them in multiple events. Kentville won 10 medals, including three each by Justin Aalders and Mary Claire Lynch. Angus Morgan had two first place finishes and Taya McGillivary one, and the 15-18 boys’ freestyle relay team of John and Justin Aalders, Morgan and Colin Stacey swam to silver. The success of the Marlins is due to two major factors – commitment from the swimmers and excellent coaching from Missy Spencer, Scott Lovatt and Shauna Manning last year and from Manning, Colin Stacey and Pete Porskamp this summer.

All are accomplishing great things, and representing our area with a lot of class - making us proud.