The big one is done.
More than 300 games over five days, featuring 129 teams from across the province, came to a close Friday at the finals of the 50th annual Junior All Native Tournament (JANT 2026) at Langley Events Centre.
It was the biggest Indigenous competition of its kind in B.C., the best-attended and most-watched ever, with 2,400 fans watching at Centre Court for the highest attended championship finals day in tournament history, while online, more than 373,000 cumulative viewers tuned in.
Four teams went home with gold in U17 boys and girls, and U13 boys and girls divisions.
In the U17 boys finals boys,Ts’ap downed VanCity Warriors 77-71.
It was a rematch of the semi-final that saw VanCity advance on Thursday, but Ts’ap won a do-or-die game against the Ahousaht Islanders to face the Warriors in the championship.
Ts’ap controlled the game and stopped the VanCity Warriors from repeating as a champions from last year.
At’maakw ended Friday’s U17 girls championship game by winning their fifth title in as many years as they defeated Tla-o-qui-aht West Coast 60-58, holding off a late surge by the challenger that brought them within two points, but no closer.
In U13 boys, Sons of Gingolx defeated the G̱aw Tlagée Jr. Raiders 48-43 in a game that was neck and neck for all four quarters.
Snuneymuxw Islanders repeated as U13 girls champions after going undefeated in five games during group play before finishing their run with a win against the Mini Mystics 69-22.
JANT 2026 was co-hosted by the Vancouver Bandits, VanCity Nation youth basketball and Kwantlen First Nation.