SportsLife 2016, Issue 2 | Page 8

Marchak Takes Another Step Towards Rio Olympic Games Winnipeg’s Mandy Marchak took another step on her journey to the Sevens Rugby Competition at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro when she was selected to participate for Team Canada at the Sao Paulo Sevens in Brazil in late February. Marchak, who plays her club rugby for Capilano RFC in B.C., has been a long time member of Canada’s National Sevens Team and in Sao Paulo, our national team was terrific winning the silver medal after losing a hardfought gold medal final to Australia. Canada is currently ranked No 2 in the world, well behind No. 1 Australia and just ahead of New Zealand. National Junior Team Handball Championship Coming to Winnipeg This May, the Manitoba and Canadian Team Handball Federations will bring the 2016 Canadian Junior Team Handball Championships to Winnipeg. The national tournament is slated to take place from May 13-15 at Investors Group Athletic Centre on the campus of the University of Manitoba. This prestigious three-day event will bring scores of players, coaches, parents and supporters to Winnipeg to determine a premiere junior (U-21) championship team. Manitoba will enter both a Junior Men’s and Junior Women’s team to compete in the tournament and the Manitoba Team Handball Federation says that it anticipates a few thousand people will attend the tournament. Winnipeg Wild Win Triple A Midget Hockey Championship The best team all season was the best team in the playoffs. Ben Coppinger scored what turned out to be the winning goal as the Winnipeg Wild took the Manitoba Triple A Midget Hockey League championship last month, beating the Eastman Selects 5-4 at MTS Iceplex. With the win, the Wild wrapped up the best-of-five final three games to one. Griffin Leonard, Caiden Daley, Tanner Mole and Jett Woo scored the other goals for the Wild. The Wild are now the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League Champions and they moved on to represent the province at the Telus Cup West Regional Championship in Saskatoon. 8 / sportslife