The best fastpitch players from around the globe are in Melbourne and Glencoe this week for the ISC World Fastpitch Championships. The tournament has now gone past the preliminary round, and the brackets have been divided into ISC and the ISC 2 divisions. While the best of the best, including Bear Creek Gremlins and JDT First Energy, are competing for the top division title, local teams are in the ISC 2 and Legends divisions. The St. Thomas Elgins defeated Sebringville 7-2 Wednesday while the Chippewa Chiefs were in action Wednesday night. “For our group. It’s just fun to be together and try to get this on home soil,” said Brady Stafford, Elgins’ catcher. “I said to the guys before, it’s an advantage to be that close to home, so let’s take advantage of it. For most of our guys it is the first time at the world level. Our league is great, but what makes this cool is we are all local guys and we are seeing guys from Saskatchewan, Argentina yesterday, and Mexico.” The Elgins have played some games this season at the new JDT Energy memorial fields, but they are also proud to showcase a facility of that quality to the rest of the world. “Just the changes they’ve made just over the summer,” raved Stafford. “We’ve had to play out here all year for our home games and just every week we come and there seems to be something new and something better. We can’t say enough about how nice of a facility we have here.” Lighting U23 win eastern Canadian gold The London Lightning U23 team is the Eastern Canadian Champion. The Intermediate team went a perfect 6-and-0 in the tournament in Nova Scotia, including a pair of victories (12-7 and 4-0) over Newfoundland in the championship final. It’s the third straight title for this team after winning the previous two years at the U19 level. Sienna Gregory was named top pitcher, and first baseman Kelsea Peckham was named tournament MVP. “I love them all so much,” Peckham told CTV Atlantic about her teammates. “They all did amazing. I wouldn’t want an MVP without them. We wouldn’t win without them. They are just the best people I’ve ever met in my life. It (winning MVP) means everything to me. I worked really hard before this tournament, and it just really means everything to me to win the MVP of the tournament.” Nash Okkerse wins seven gold medals in three weeks on the track Nash Okkerse of St. Thomas, Ont. is going to need a new room for all his track medals. Over the past three weeks, he’s defeated the best runners in the province and the country en route to seven gold medals. His latest triumphs came in Saskatoon at the Legion Track and Field National Championships. Trailing down the stretch in both the 1200m and the 2000m, he pulled away in the final 150 metres to claim gold in both races. He also ran the 400m leg for Team Ontario in the Sprint Medley as they broke the meet record to win the title and picked up a bronze medal in the 800m. In the previous two weeks, he won gold in the 1200m and 2000m at both the Ontario Summer Games and Athletics Ontario. His St. Thomas Legion teammate Xavier Sauer had a big week at Nationals. He was also part of the Sprint Medley team, he won gold in the 4x100m relay, took silver in the 200m and bronze in the 100m. Will Downing won silver in the U18 110m hurdles. Smash pickleball qualifies for playoffs at host tournament The top pickleball players in Canada were in London, Ont. this week for the annual Canadian National Pickleball League (CNPL) tour stop. Smash Pickleball hosted the tournament featuring teams from across the country and Michigan. London came into the weekend as the top seed in the CNPL and left with a perfect 5-0 record. They are now 18-4 on the season and clinched a playoff spot on day one of the event. They join Grand River Rapids and Toronto United as the teams to earn a spot in the postseason. “It’s always special when it comes back to London,” said Lucas Wong, a Londoner who plays for the Smash. “This is my home facility, so I get to see a lot of friendly faces when we play here. It’s nice to have the support of the home crowd.” As the nine-court Smash Pickleball facility approaches its second year in business, the game continues to grow and other smaller communities are starting to construct indoor facilities. “It’s great to see new people try and pick it up all every day,” said Wong. “They are some of the most fun and enthusiastic players, so we’re really glad to see that growing in smaller communities and hopefully feed some of these bigger tournaments.”
