History seems to have a way of repeating itself and it did just that on Saturday, August 20, 2022—the final day of cycling events at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara.
The day began with the female road criterium race where Lilly Ujfalusi from New Westminster accumulated just enough points to win the gold medal for Team BC. The race format was based on a points system where points are awarded to the top four riders to cross the line on every fifth lap; double points were awarded for the mid-race lap and the final lap. Lilly edged out Team Quebec’s Camille Primeau by just one point to win the race, putting Quebec in 2nd and Team Alberta in 3rd. It was in this same event at the last Canada Summer Games in 2017 in Winnipeg where Team BC, led by Gillian Ellsay, beat out Team Quebec for the gold medal in the final event.
The male crit race in 2022 was dominated by Team Quebec as it was at the 2017 Games when they swept the podium. Team BC’s Evan Russell of Mill Bay would deny this historical recurrence from happening in 2022 by picking up enough points to win a bronze medal and spoiling a repeat of the podium sweep by Team Quebec.
Team BC’s male and female road cycling teams concluded the 2022 Canada Summer Games with a total of five medals:
1 Gold: Lilly Ujfalusi (New Westminster) in the female criterium
1 Silver: Evan Russell (Mill Bay) in the male time trial
3 Bronze: Evan Russell (Mill Bay) in the male criterium, Braden Kersey (Vernon) in the male road race, and Isla Walker (Victoria) in the female road race
A huge congratulations to the whole team on representing BC and cycling at the 2022 Canada Summer Games.
- Braden Kersey | Vernon, BC
- Manu Moore | Vancouver, BC
- Evan Russell | Mill Bay, BC
- Matthew Ney | North Saanich, BC
- Nathan Pruner | North Vancouver, BC
- Lilly Ujfalusi | New Westminster, BC
- Isla Walker | Victoria, BC
- Elizabeth Gin | Surrey, BC
- Astrid Wuerr | Vancouver, BC
An extra big thank you goes out to Cycling BC High Performance Manager, Tara Mowat, who supported, managed, and coached the Team BC cycling teams in both Road and Mountain Bike for the entire two weeks of the 2022 Canada Games in Ontario. Thank you as well to Tim Sherstobitoff (Coach), Joel Harwood (Coach), and Noah Rubuliak from the Mountain Bike squad for your support and assistance throughout the games.
That’s a wrap for the 2022 Canada Summer Games! Thank you to Cycling BC sponsors and supporters for your continuing support of cycling & for allowing us to provide these incredible opportunities to young developing cyclists in BC.
