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Richmond athletes headed to B.C. Summer Games

City will be well-represented by basketball players on Vancouver Coastal team in Abbotsford
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Richmond's 3x3 team is fresh off a second place showing at the Western Canadian Championships at SFU.

Richmond Basketball will be well-represented on the Vancouver Coastal Zone team competing at this week’s B.C. Summer Games in Abbotsford.

A whopping 28 players will be participating in 3-on-3 and full court hoop events. That’a great reflection of the development of talent in the city and bodes well for the future at the high school level too. The Vancouver Coastal Zone represents five areas — Richmond, Vancouver, Delta, North Shore and Squamish-Lillooet.

This is the second time 3-on-3 will be included at the B.C. Games, debuting two years ago.

It is is a growing sport around the globe and it is being eyed as a potential Olympic event. For the BC Summer Games, U14 plays regular 5x5 basketball, while 3x3 is played at U13.

For each zone there are 10 players who are divided into two teams for the 3x3 competition.

Two years ago, it was a very young team with all 10 players under-aged representing the local region.

This time around it is an older group, with eight boys about to enter Grade 8 and two others with one more year of elementary school remaining.

Returning from the team two years ago is Nicholas Kennedy, the only player to get a second opportunity at winning a medal at the Games. He is off to McMath in the fall, along with three of his Summer Games teammates: Kenneth Wong, Michael Kitka and Ben Falk.

They are joined by Allan Tan and Cameron Tsu, who will be going to Burnett. Nolan Rollins is headed to Hugh Boyd, and Nao Kawano Steveston-London . Rounding out the team are Noah Fung and Kyle Christoffersen who both have a final year of elementary school ahead of them. The team is coached by Chris Kennedy and Harley Rollins.

“This is the fifth time I have coached at the Games, and previous participants still talk about their great memories,” said Chris Kennedy, a well-respected high school coach who has enjoyed plenty of success. “Many of our boys have played club basketball all year, and this is a final chance to play together before they are off to different schools in the fall.

“There are many basketball options available for young people but it is an amazing honour to get to represent your region at the Summer Games.”

The boys have prepared for the Games with a couple impressive tournament results.

At the end of May they finished third at Basketball BC’s Provincial Zone Team Championships. Earlier this month they went 4-0 in winning their division at the Western Canadian Championships at SFU. Kawano was named tournament all-star at SFU.

The BC Summer Games will have close to 4,000 athletes competing in 18 sports over the July 21-24 weekend. This is the 30th Summer Games. They were first held in Penticton in 1978 and were held in Richmond in 1979. Initially held annually, they are now held every two years.

Here’s rundown of Richmond athletes attending the Games in all sports:

Athletics
Carson Bradley, Javid Gill, Hiroki Sato, Serge Serbinenko, Kelsey Thomson.

Baseball
Dustin McElwain.

Basketball (3X3)
Kyle Christoffersen, Benjamin Falk, Mitsuano Kawano, Nicholas Kennedy, Michael Kitka, Nolan Rollins, Allan Tan, Cameron Tsu, Kenneth Wong, Abigail Bodden, Kate Carkner, Mina Chong, Joy DeJesus, Kaila Fong, Jasmine Leung, Anngrei Cody Mariano.

Basketball
Nicolas Berda, Jonathan Downton, Oscar Lam, HanXu Liu, Jackie Nguyen, Arjun Pawar, Harold Rhodes III, Appar Sahota, Keith Wong, Caitlin Bradley-Tse, Lauren Monteiro, Dana Sander.

Golf
Sherri Yang.

Lacrosse
Liam Birch, Evan Brusse, Diesel De Guzman, Ian Ryder.

Rugby
Kaitlyn Agda, Valerie Wideski.

Sailing
Kyle Nunn, Darren Zhang.

Soccer
Alexander Hodgkinson, Evan Sandhu, Reiko Bohmert, Morgan Flynn, Jessie Hall, Samantha Trueman.

Softball (Fastpitch)
Anthony Armstrong, Darius Capadouca, Aaron Chaing, Emerson Cooke, Sean Eagles, Thomas Gorelik, Sanford Lee, Jonah Pipke, Joshua Purewal-MacLachlan, Tanner Roberts, Brett Shubrook, Evan Statham, Josie Cook, Jessica Porter, Ellen Yam.

Swimming
Jeremy Fung, Darren Ge, Joshua Quon, Dimitri Volchkov, Joshua Yeo.

Synchronized Swimming
Gloria Duan, Kelly Hutt, Emma Stewart.

Triathlon
Alexander Rybolov.

Volleyball
Nik Cruz, Ellijah Kim, Pearl Zhou, Kyra Penner, Isabella Wong.

Wrestling
Jovan Dhaliwal.