Reece Hawthorne has been putting in extra time to better prepare his mental strength for big wakeboard competitions.
The Vernon 15-year-old was in total sync Friday as he struck silver in the B.C. Summer Games Under 18 boys wakeboard competition at Hatzic Lake near Abbotsford.
Tyler Lindsay of Shawnigan Lake, whose score of 81.50 was the class of the field, took gold. Hawthorne posted a 56 narrowly beating Mill Bay’s Deklon Shadlock, who recorded a 52. Hawthorne was fourth in the wakeskate event.
“It felt good to land my second run,” he said of his silver medal. “I nailed all my banger tricks on my second pass. I did what I wanted but I hit a plastic buoy on my first pass and did a nosedive which they didn’t call a fall.”
Hawthorne pulled off tricks like the tantrum, half-cab, toe-side roll and heelside-nose dive.
“I was nervous at the start, but once you feel the wake, you go throw down everything you’ve got.”
As for Lindsay’s gold-medal run, Hawthorne said: “He threw down an insane run; he landed all of his tricks.”
The field of 14 wakeboarders were pulled by a MasterCraft X-46.
Hawthorne is one of 49 athletes representing the North Okanagan and Zone 2 at the Games, which close Sunday.
West Kelowna’s Brock Hoel led from start to finish en route to gold as Okanagan athletes swept the B.C. Summer Games boys triathlon Friday at Albert Dyck Lake in Abbotsford.
A strong run from Summerland’s Keegan Ingram saw him claim silver. He was followed by teammates Braden Kersey of Vernon (bronze medal) and Connor Hobbs of Kelowna.
The triathlon saw the athletes complete a 500-metre swim in Albert Dyck Lake, a 10-k bike ride on a road course in the area, followed by a three-k run comprising two laps of the lake.
In U15 baseball, the Thompson/Okanagan lost 6-1 to Fraser River. Carter Morris, Falcon Thomas, Chase Batchelor and Brady Beacom are with the Zone 2 entry, coached by Vernon’s Charlie Law.
Thompson-Okanagan edged the Kootenays in three sets in girls volleyball. Olivia Tymkiw, Maisa Orosz and Gabby Triggs of Vernon are with Zone 2, who has Fane Triggs as a coach.