The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Wednesday, May 12, 1999 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D1 An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON 845-3824 (Extension 2 5 5 ) Fax:337-5567 BARGAIN-RATE CAR INSURANCE W ITH BARGAIN- RATE SERVICE IS NO BARGAIN. Don't trust just anyone to insure your car, see me: John Bauman 6 2 7 Lyon's Lane #308, Oakville 842-2225 844-8703 Sports The O akville Skating Club held its third annual awards banquet Saturday night and also enjoyed some 60th anniversary celebrations. At the now annual season ending gathering, a multitude o f skaters were honoured for their achievements over the past year. A nd they were further inspired by some very special guest speakers -- Lenny Faustino, a national senior pairs skater, and Joan Stevens, president o f the local Central O ntario Section o f the C anadian F igure Skating A ssociation (CFSA). The com petitive and am ateur instructor bursaries were handed out as were the CFSA test and gold and diamond m edal presentations. The gold achievem ent is the culm ination o f years of w ork by the skaters in both freeskate and dance (the latter also has a further diam ond category). Here are this year's honoured recipients ... Skills 1: M elanie Evens; D iam ond Dance: M elanie Vipond; Gold D ance: K atherine A ndrew s, Jennifer Becker, Jaim e G irard, M artina Joller, Jessica Nelligan, Heather Ross, A ndrea Solarski, M arta W arner and Lindsay Warren; Gold Free Skate: M elanie Vipond and Sarah Yundt; Gold Artistic: M artina Joller, N icole Sidler and Melanie Vipond. Photo by Ron Kuzyk Oakville Skating Club pays tribute to its 98/99 award winners Photo by Glen Thiessen The Oakville Skating Club 1999 gold and diam ond award recipients. BACK ROW: Heather Ross, Katie Andrews, Lindsay Warren, Melanie Vipond, M elanie Evens, M arta W arner and Jessica Nelligan. FRONT ROW: Jenny Becker, Martina Joller and Sarah Y undt ABSENT: Jaim e Girard, Nicole Sidler and Andrea S o larsk i. P oint guard K aren Z m irak, 12, m ay be the best in the country in her age group. Zmirak making her points Karen Z m irak has spent the first half o f 1999 lighting up basketball courts in both C anada and the United States. A nd she's only 13 years old. W ith the help o f her father, Branko (a fo rm er pro fessional basketball p layer in C roatia) and her sisters K ornelija and Karol (who is on a bas­ ketball scho larsh ip in San D iego, California), this young lady has been turning heads every tim e she steps on the court. H am ilton Transway is a rep basket­ ball organization that com petes in the O ntario B asketball A ssociation. Zm irak plays on the first division ban­ tam team w ith players a year older than herself. The w eekend o f April 23-25 took Zm irak and her Transway club to the O BA cham pionships, where her team w ent on a ram page and swept all opposing team s by a margin o f 20 points or m ore to take the hardware home. Z m irak w as nam ed tournam ent MVP, scoring a total o f 77 points over five gam es for an average o f 15.4 points per game. Because the games w ere all w on by large m argins, Zm irak did not play extensively, but still m anaged to excite everyone with her speed and ball handling abilities. For her M V P honours in the tour­ nam ent, Zm irak received a w eek's free stay at Cam p Olympia, one of O ntario's m ost fam ous and highly regarded sports camps. Just a few m onths ago Zm irak was playing basketball here in Oakville for St. D om inic's elem entary school. St. D om inic's won both the Oakville and H alton cham pionship tournam ents. (See 'Zmirak' page D3) Youth Provincials at Glen Abbey... Photo by Peter J. Thompson Photo by Peter J. Thompson Oakville Antoinettes gym nasts push their abilities to the lim it during this past weekend's Youth Provincials at the Glen Abbey Rec Centre. LEFT PHOTO: Brittany Gataveckas in pre-novice 2. CENTRE PHOTO: Carly M cM illan in novice 3. TO P RIGHT PHOTO: Alyssa Brown in pre-novice 3. BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTO: Katey Ishikawa in pre-novice 3. Photo by Ron Kuzyk ... rave reviews It was another great highlight for O akville's rich sports tapestry. The town, its m overs and shakers and its gym nasts shone brightly this past weekend as the prestigious 1999 W om en's Artistic Youth Provincial Cham pionships were hosted here with rave reviews. So im pressed were O ntario G ym nastics Federation rep­ resentatives w ith the Oakville A ntoinettes' handling o f the three-day event at the G len Abbey Rec Centre, that Oakville has been given the opportunity to repeat its perform ance next year. There was a professionalism and an upbeat attitude which prevailed the entire w eekend and contributed to the com plim entary feedback, said A ntoinettes' general m anag­ er, W ayne Hussey. "The organization o f the event w ent very, very smoothly. M uch o f the credit goes to the m eet directors Carolyn M elia and Sue M cM illan," said Hussey. The volunteers w ho gave generously o f their tim e, who had trem endous pride in the event kept the m om entum going, he added. M any volunteers were there between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. for three days solid. "It was a very special w eekend," said Hussey. Everyone from coaches to OGF officials and judges said the m eet had m ore o f a "national cham pionship feel," not only because o f the venue used -- norm ally provincials are held in a high school -- but because o f the great attention to detail, said Hussey. Spectators had a spectacular view overlooking the gym, crowds were consistent, vendors located inside the front doors hit the traffic flow and the m ovem ent o f athletes from events in the arena to awards cerem onies in the gym nasium , (See 'Antoinettes' page D2) STORIES SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER B Y KATHY YANCHUS ... 'it's their day to shine' Glen Abbey Arena as a hockey and skat­ ing venue was unrecognizable. W hen the movers and shakers who brought the Women's Artistic Youth Provincial Championships to town were through, the rink was transformed into a facility fit for elite gymnasts and a champi­ onship event. A gigantic red, white and blue banner stretched around the entire perimeter o f the arena boards. Red and blue mats, o f all sizes and depths, blanketed the underlying cement and billowy curtains cordoned off the area. Centre stage was the giant floor routine mat, hugged by the uneven bars, the vault and beams. For the spectators, looking down from an excellent vantage point, the colorful scene resembled a tiny village; coaches, judges and officials milled around and petite muscular bodies, poured into bodysuits o f every color, texture and design, pranced from one routine to another. Dozens of competitors, the cream of the 9 to 12-year-old crop from throughout Ontario, descended upon the makeshift gym over the weekend enthralling appreciative audiences with their airborne twists and somersaults, their flips and splits and tucks and tumbles. Their hair pulled taut into bright scrunchies, the grace and fluidity o f their bodies provid­ ed a continual athletic ballet. After executing amazingly intricate moves on om inous looking equipment, they would elegantly walk towards a section strewn with backpacks and running shoes, duck under the curtain out o f the spotlight, and dissolve into kids, chatting and hugging and giggling. Coaches watched with expert eyes, fine tuning moves, easing youthful bodies through difficult manoeuvres. Using hand gesture cues, they prodded, they corrected, they encouraged. An explosion o f chalk dust and hands slid into grips as the girls warmed up on the uneven bars.Tumbles and splits and flips were tirelessly executed again and again before the competition. Springboards and mats were placed and removed over and over for vault routines. It was quiet, focused determ ination during warmup with the occasional small burst o f applause. Spectators grew in numbers as the clock ticked away towards the official start. They filtered in and out, m unching on pop­ corn and chips. Future gymnasts swung on hand railings Once the lengthy warm up was over, the music stopped, the athletes donned track suits and paraded in, carrying signs denoting central, eastern, metro east, metro west and northern and southwest regions. Each gym­ nast was introduced, jum ping through an arch o f balloons and waving to the audience which responded with warm applause. The judges took their places, the music resumed and the announcer welcomed every­ one. He thanked the staff and the small army of volunteers for their hard work, local busi­ nesses for their tremendous support and the athletes for their dedication and sacrifice. "It's their day to shine," he said. And they did.