The City of St. Albert will honour hometown hero and Olympic gold medallist Jarome Iginla on Sept. 4.
“It’s important to recognize our local athletes and to let people know that we have some outstanding talent that has come out of, and continues to come out of St. Albert,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse.
The celebration is scheduled for Seven Hills, from 1 to 3 p.m., and will include the singing of O Canada by members of the Iginla family, a formal presentation by Crouse to the Calgary Flames’ captain and an autograph session for youths under 18 years of age.
“This event is part of the city’s effort in recognizing the Olympic athletes who call St. Albert home and who represented our community at the games in Vancouver,” Crouse said. “Recognition items have already been provided to Meaghan Mikkelson, who won gold in women’s hockey, and Tamara Oudenaaden, who represented Canada as an alternate in speed skating. The city also has plans coming together for this fall when we will recognize Marc Kennedy, a local resident who brought home a gold medal in men’s curling.”
In the event of poor weather, the event will be held at Servus Credit Union Place.
Iginla, 33, assisted on Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in overtime, as Canada beat the United States 3-2 in the final at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The assist was Iginla’s seventh point of the tournament. He led all scorers with five goals in seven games.
It was Iginla’s third Olympics and his second Olympic gold medal. He is the Flames’ franchise leader in games played (1,024), goals (441) and points (920), and is second in assists (479), behind Al MacInnis (609).
Growing up in St. Albert, the multi-talented athlete led the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League in scoring (34-53-87 in 36 games) as a second-year bantam with the 1992/93 St. Albert Eagle Raiders. He was also named the all-star catcher at the 1992 bantam AAA nationals; batted .400, with eight hits, one home run and four RBIs as the host St. Albert Cardinals finished 2-3. The Paul Kane High School alumnus also played his junior high school sports with the Lorne Akins Gators.
The St. Albert Roadrunners and Triathlon Club will be represented by several medal contenders at the ITU World Age Group Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
John O’Kelly and Valerie Braiden will compete in the sprint distance Sept. 11.
The next day, Deborah Digiuseppe, Helmi McHenry and Karen Mazurek will race the Olympic distance.
The event website is http://budapest.triathlon.org/
The St. Albert Sailfish swam away with the regional B team trophy at the recent provincial qualifier in the Alberta Summer Swimming Association.
Under the direction of head coach Glenn Wilson, a flotilla of 84 swimmers, ranging in age from six to 18 years of age, outperformed the Stony Plain Sharks, who held the trophy for the last few years.
Twenty-five Sailfish also qualified for provincials.
Richard Barness netted four goals and Dave Marrese stopped 31 shots as the St. Albert Miners recorded their first win at the President’s Cup senior B lacrosse national championship at Burnaby, B.C.
Wednesday’s 17-3 blowout of the Cornwall Island Redmen of the Iroquois Lacrosse Association included Nate Schmidt’s hat-trick and five assists. Graedon Cornfield added one goal and six assists.
The Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League champions opened the tournament with losses of 9-5 against the Tri-City (B.C.) Bandits and 18-9 against the Onondaga Redhawks of the Can-Am senior B league.
The seven-team competition wraps up today. The tournament website is www.presidentscup2010.com.
This year the long-time Edmonton lacrosse club, with junior A and senior B teams in the Rocky Mountain league, rebranded itself as the St. Albert Miners. As the Edmonton Miners, they were based out of Bill Hunter Arena before moving their home games to Servus Credit Union Place a few years ago.
