Pune 2008: Canada completes magnificent games!

Pune, India - Canada wrapped up competition at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games adding with four more medals, two gold and two silvers, to bring its' the total medal count to 26.

Canadian athletes won medals in every sport that the country participated in, finishing fifth in the total medal count behind India with 74 (33 gold, 25 silver, 16 bronze), Australia with 64 (24 gold, 19 silver, 21 bronze), England with 41 (18 gold, nine silver, 14 bronze) and South Africa with 29 (seven gold, 13 silver, nine bronze).

Unlike the four countries ahead of it, Canada did not field teams in swimming nor tennis.

“We are very proud of our athlete’s performance at the Games,” said Canadian chef de mission Shawnee Scatliff. “We won medals in each sport that we participated in and our athletes set many personal bests, but more important than that was seeing how our athletes represented themselves with class on and off of the field of competition.”

The 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games was the first time that Canada had participated in the event, which featured over 1300 athletes from the 71 Commonwealth nations.

Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC) went to the Games with two key objectives; to provide world class competition to the nation’s up and coming athletes and to gather knowledge to better prepare Canadian athletes for future multi-sport international competitions.

“Our athletes had the opportunity to play in world class venues in front of large and vocal crowds and had a lot of success, so we are pleased with the Pune experience,” said CGC director of sport Scott Stevenson. “The other key for us was to find ways to best prepare Canadian athletes for future international competitions and to that extent, these Games were a real success.”

Team Canada will participate in the closing ceremony on Saturday evening and will spend some time sightseeing on Sunday before returning home on Tuesday.