For immediate release
Bee Fisheries Yarmouth Mariners Bantam AA, Ellie Black, and Hugh Smith named Sport Chek Team and Athletes of the Month for April
HALIFAX, NS (Friday, May 25, 2012) – The honour of Sport Chek Team of the Month for April has been given to Bee Fisheries Yarmouth Mariners Bantam AA hockey team. Having placed first in their nine-team league, they earned the right to compete at the Hockey Nova Scotia provincial championships. There, they continued their winning streak by sweeping all six of their games, clinching the top spot in the province. Team members also won numerous personal awards.
Twenty-eight-year-old Hugh Smith is named April’s Sport Chek Male Individual Athlete of the Month. The Dartmouth resident also competed at the 2nd Annual International Meeting in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where he finished third All Around. In the event finals, he won a silver medal in the floor category, and bronze medals in vault, pommel horse, and rings, culminating in the most successful international competition of Hugh’s career so far.
In other gymnastics news, 16-year-old Halifax gymnast Ellie Black has been named Sport Chek Female Individual Athlete of the Month for the second time in as many months. Ellie had a very busy month of April, having contributed greatly to the five-athlete Canadian Team that competed at the 2nd Annual International Meeting in Sao Paolo, Brazil in mid-April, and then scooting over to the World Cup in Osijek, Croatia just two weeks later. Individually, she finished fourth All Around in Sao Paulo after winning the vault and beam event finals. Her team won the competition. Ellie continued to dominate internationally, winning both the vault and floor event finals in Croatia, where she set a new Canadian record for vault difficulty and score. Her results, along with a teammate’s gold on bars, makes this the most successful World Cup ever for the Canadian women. Impressively, this was Ellie’s first time competing at the World Cup. These results will serve her well as she prepares for Olympic selection.
The Athlete of the Month program is administered by Sport Nova Scotia, whose members are eligible to nominate athletes for the awards. A membership committee selects the award recipients for five possible categories: Male Individual Athlete, Female Individual Athlete, Male Team Athlete, Female Team Athlete, and Team. For more information about the awards, please visit www.sportnovascotia.ca.
Sport Nova Scotia is a voice for amateur sport that promotes the benefits of health, personal development and achievement of all participants. Sport Nova Scotia is a non-profit, non-government organization representing approximately 60 provincial sport organizations and more than 160,000 member Nova Scotians.
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For more information and/or athlete photos, please contact:
Danny Godfrey
Telephone: (902) 425-5450, ext. 359
Email: dgodfrey@sportnovascotia.ca