Bordeaux-Cartierville residents Mamadou Barry, Djoumsi Ulric-Elliot Fonga, Edgar-Ademir Pacas et Raphaely Pierre were part of a silver-medal-winning boys’ soccer team. (Photo: Courtesy)
Two silver medals for Bordeaux/Cartierville
First week of Quebec Games competition comes to a close
Bordeaux-Cartierville athletes showed off their talents at the 34th Quebec Games being held in Sept-Iles and after the first section of competition wrapped up Monday, they had already brought home some hardware.
Soccer stars
The Montreal girls' soccer team – which counts Claudèle Lacombe and Audrey Hirtle-Plante (from the Salaberry association) as members, won its first two matches of the competition, 2-1 over Bourassa and 6-1 over Outaouais, to finish in first place in pool C.
The girls lost 2-0 to Laval in the final to grab the silver medal.
"We're equal to Laval in terms of talent, but they were quicker on the ball than we were," said Lacombe. "A lot of girls were tired after all these games, also."
On the boys' side, four members of the Montreal squad came from Bordeaux-Cartierville: Mamadou Barry, Djoumsi Ulric-Elliot Fonga, Edgar-Ademir Pacas and Raphaely Pierre.
The team grabbed first place in their division despite a three-way tie for first place atop the pool – through the tiebreaking system of most goals scored.
Montreal managed to make it through to the gold-medal game, where it fell 4-1 to Québec, and had to be satisfied with the silver medal. Earlier match results saw Montreal fall 2-1 to Bourassa and defeat Lac St. Louis 2-1.
"The two teams both had some great moments; the players will remember this experience for the rest of their lives," said Salaberry sports association coach Eric Lacombe.
Basketball belles
In girls' basketball, Winena Djougoué and her Montreal teammates lost their first two games to Centre-du-Quebec and the Laurentides before bouncing back to win their third preliminary-round game 57-20 over Sud-Ouest in Pool 1 of the B division. In the fifth-place game, the girls fell 50-23 to l’Est-du-Québec, and finished the tournament in sixth place out of eight teams.
The second block of the Games had not yet wrapped up at press time. Young navigators Stéphane and Sophie-Andrée Vinet will try to steer their sails to victory in that competition, and in boys' volleyball, Simon Blouin-Ganache will represent Bordeaux-Cartierville on the Montreal squad.
A warm welcome
Up until now, Quebec Games participants have gone out of their way to mention how wonderful their experiences have been.
"We stayed in a school there, and it was very well organized and the whole team has had a blast," said Claudèle Lacombe upon her return. Her father and coach Éric Lacombe underlined the warm nature of Sept-Îles residents.
"They were very involved in the event and they were smiling and very welcoming," he said.
( Translated by Marc Lalonde)
Steven Guilbeault - Chronique environnement
Richard Cléroux - Le fouineur politique
