Snowboarder Captures Gold for Team Nova Scotia

Alexandra Duckworth of Kingsburg, Lunenburg Co., claimed Nova Scotia's first gold medal of the 2007 Canada Games in the half-pipe snowboarding event, Wednesday, Feb. 28.

The freestyle snowboarder finished first in the qualifier on Mount Sima before grabbing the gold medal. It is the first medal to be awarded in half-pipe at a Canada Games.

"I'm thrilled. I've never competed in an event quite like this, with so many athletes from so many provinces," said Ms. Duckworth."This whole experience has been really cool and it feels great to win something for Nova Scotia."

Emily Ernst of Sackville placed sixth in the event.

In the men's halfpipe, Ben Robinson of Falmouth finished eighth and Andrew Armstrong of Windsor placed 20th.

In curling action, the women's team pulled off a 6-5 win against Alberta in the 12th end to improve to 3-2.

The judo team lost out on two bronze medals yesterday with Scott MacAdam of East Bay and Bryan Campbell of New Glasgow placing fifth in their respective categories.

The ringette team plays for seventh place against Saskatchewan today, while the hockey team will play Quebec as they aim for a fifth-place finish.

Both Nicole Theriault and Rhiannon Wyatt were eliminated in compound archery quarterfinals, as was Jeff Ryan, who lost by just one point to the eventual gold-medal winner. Nova Scotia's female air pistol team finished seventh.

For more results and upcoming events, visit the team's website at ns.canadagames.ca .

Team Nova Scotia 2007 has 290 members -- 213 athletes, 36 coaches, 23 managers, three artists and 15 mission staff.

The Canada Games is the country's largest amateur multi-sport event. More than 3,600 athletes, coaches and managers are gathering in Whitehorse to compete for 1,122 medals in 22 sports from Feb. 23 to March 10.