Manager recalls personal best

By Bob Mackin

Thelma Wright won't be around to see her sons play in a field hockey exhibition against the national team on a field named for her father-in-law.

That's because she's leaving Sunday for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Wright is Canada's track and field team manager for the July 25 to Aug. 4 event in Manchester, England.

Her sons Anthony and Phillip are part of the national junior squad are taking on Canada's Commonwealth Games-bound senior side at Wright Field on the University of B.C. campus Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The field is named for Harold Wright, Canadian Olympic Association president from 1972 to 1976. The artificial pitch was built on UBC's track and field practice facility. Thelma Wright, who coached UBC in 1987-1988, is lobbying the university to fulfill a 32-year promise and build a track at Thunderbird Stadium.

The 51-year-old retired schoolteacher and mother of four was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Though she raced in the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, her fondest memories are of winning 1,500-metre bronze medals in back-to-back Commonwealth Games.

"The motto for our Canadian team is 'moments for a lifetime,'" she said. "In my experience as an athlete, my two most favourite competitions were the 1970 Commonwealth Games in (Edinburgh) Scotland and the same four years later in (Christchurch) New Zealand. I had the best time, ran my best and was really enjoying myself."

Her job in Manchester will be to "keep the campers happy" by organizing accommodation at the athletes' village, uniforms, meals and transportation.

- The national field hockey team's last international friendly is Monday at 4 p.m. at Wright Field.

Vancouver's Gene Muller coaches the side that includes: Tsawwassen's Michael Lee, West Vancouver's Steve Davis and Mike Mahood, North Vancouver's Paul Wettlaufer of North Vancouver, Vancouver's Rick Roberts and North Delta's Bindi Kullar.

In women's field hockey, British Columbia Blue beat Ontario 1-0 July 7 in London, Ont., to win the national championship.

Butch Worth of Vancouver coaches the national women's side which counts three B.C. Blue players en route to the Commonwealth Games: Julia Wong and Lisa Faust of Vancouver and North Vancouver's Stephanie Hume.

- Canada's 17-player roster for the Canada Cup International Women's Fastpitch Tournament has been set and it includes five Lower Mainlanders.

Among the 17 players wearing the maple leaf at Softball City in Surrey are: North Vancouver pitcher Kaila Holtz, Coquitlam catcher Lesley McPherson, Surrey third baseman Shannon Rossiter, White Rock pitcher Kelly Zeilstra and second baseman Kristy Odamura of Richmond.

When the Canada Cup wraps up July 21, the team moves to Saskatoon where it's hosting the Women's ISF World Softball Championships July 26 to Aug. 4.

The top four teams earn berths to the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

- The Vancouver Whitecaps ended a scoring drought with a 3-1 win over the El Paso Patriots before 3,054 fans at Swangard Stadium Wednesday.

Nick Dasovic headed the winner into the Patriots' net with five minutes left in regulation. Steve Kindel had a pair, including an insurance goal at the 90-minute. mark

Kindel and his teammates had several chances a week earlier, but tied the Indiana Blast 0-0.

The Whitecaps, second place in the A-League's Pacific Division, host the Calgary Storm tonight at 7:30 p.m.

W-League player-of-the-week Diana Artuso leads the 9-0 Vancouver Breakers in a 4:30 p.m. meeting with the Denver Lady Cougars.

One ticket is good for both games.

- Last week the Whitecaps couldn't put the ball between the goalposts. This week it was the B.C. Lions' turn.

Kicker Matt Kellett failed on all four field goal attempts at the Lions' home opener Tuesday against the Toronto Argonauts. The last miss hurt the most. It should've given the Lions a win or tied the game and forced overtime.

Instead, Argo kicker Noel Prefontaine booted Kellett's miss out of the end zone. Toronto's Michael O'Shea recovered the ball at midfield near a stunned Kellett and ran for a touchdown. Prefontaine added the extra point to make it 30-22.

Meanwhile, a little bit of the XFL lives on at B.C. Place.

Twice the Lions' leather mini-skirted cheerleaders-The Felions-ventured into the level two seating area to shake their booties (and pom-poms). Vince McMahon's short-lived XFL brought the action closer to fans and Bobby Ackles brought the concept to B.C. Place. The Lions president was boss of the XFL's Las Vegas Outlaws.

The Lions will need more than in-your-face cheerleading and accurate kicking to draw more than 15,796 fans to their next game Thursday against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Rain might help.

That may be the only way Vancouverites will venture inside non-air conditioned B.C. Place on a hot summer night.

- Germany's Sabine Spitz had a big enough lead in the UCI/Tissot Mountainbike World Cup cross-country race at Grouse Mountain July 6 that she could afford to dismount and walk to the finish line.

She can also afford singing lessons after winning the $3,800 first prize. She didn't get a bonus for working overtime, however.

Spitz won the six-lap race on the 4.8-kilometre course in one hour, 58 minutes and 26 seconds. But organizers failed twice to play the correct national anthem as lumberjacks raised the flags above Paradise Bowl.

So they handed Spitz the microphone and she performed "Deutschland-Lied" a capella.

North Vancouver's Alison Sydor finished third. In the men's race on July 7, Roland Green of Victoria finished a disappointing sixth. World Cup leader Filip Meirhaeghe of Belgium was the winner.

- Speaking of spokes_ Thanks to the Tour de France, any bicycle race on pavement must include "de" in the title.

I guess that's why after a nine-year absence, the Gastown Grand Prix is now the Steamworks Tour de Gastown.

The cobblestoned streets of Gastown will be closed Wednesday for the 22nd running of Canada's longest-running one-day cycling race. To mark the occasion, Steamworks is pouring Skinny Tire, a Bavarian-style wheat beer made at the Gastown brewpub to mark the occasion.

"It's a light, tangy summer ale with a bit of a kick at the finish," said Steamworks' president Eli Gershkovitch.

The women's criterium goes at 6:30 p.m. with the men's race at 7:30 p.m.

The Steamworks Tour de Gastown is the centerpiece of British Columbia's Super Cycling Week, which includes this weekend's three-stage Tour de Delta and the July 19-21 three-stage Tour de White Rock.

- Cain Franson led the B.C. Selects with a hattrick in a 5-4 win over the North Alberta All-Stars in the Canadian AAA Hockey Challenge on July 3 in Edmonton.

Felix Fiedler and Mark McNeill assisted Franson's game-winning goal.

Eric Williams backstopped B.C. in the 10-team minor novice division and was named most valuable goaltender.

The June 28-July 3 tournament drew 84 teams in various divisions.

- So baseball's All-Star Game ended in a 7-7 tie in the 11th inning and without a most valuable player.

Something unusual was bound to happen.

The game was played in Milwaukee, home of the only team to move from the American League to the National League in the 20th century. The Brewers are run by the daughter of the commissioner named Bud (Selig) and the game was played at a ballpark sponsored by Miller Brewing Co.