The 2026 BC Summer Games in Kelowna were in full swing Saturday with young athletes competing for medals in a host of different sports from all across the province.
As of 5:30 p.m. July 25, Vancouver Island-Central Coast (Zone 6) leads the way with 48 medals. The zone has earned 15 gold, 20 silver and 13 bronze medals thus far.
Fraser River (Zone 4) has collected 47 medals and also boasts the most gold medals with 19.
Vancouver-Coastal (Zone 5) is in third place in the medal count with 43, including 16 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze medals.
Fraser Valley (Zone 3) has 41 medals — 12 gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze.
The home team of Thompson-Okanagan (Zone 4) currently has five gold medals, eight silvers and seven bronze medals for a total count of 20.
North West (Zone 7) and Cariboo-North East (8) have 10 medals each, while the Kootenays (Zone 1) have eight and mixed zone teams have three.
There were no smoke-related postponements Saturday as air quality improved in the region.
A wide variety of sports were played throughout the day, including rugby in the morning at Rutland Recreation Park.
Rugby head coach Stuart Crowley said his Fraser Valley girls performed admirably in a win against the Thompson-Okanagan.
“It was excellent. Really physical. They played exactly to the plan that we had set out and executed super well. We suffered an injury to one of our players and they rallied around her and kind of went out and won it for her,” Crowley said. “Gutsy performance. Really proud of them.”
Crowley had nothing but good things to say about the host city for the Games.
“This is my third Games and this has definitely been the most organized one,” he said. “The temps get a little bit high and the one day with the smoke was tough to deal with, but we dealt with it, got through, and now it’s been smooth sailing. The pitches are amazing, beautiful condition on the pitches.”
While Friday’s smoke dissipated somewhat, there were some event postponements due to a lightning storm that swept through the area Saturday.
The U15 girl’s softball event experienced one such delay. Fraser River coach Phil Nguyen spoke to Black Press Media during the downtime.
“It’s been a pretty hot weekend, not the kind of heat that we’re used to down in the Vancouver area, but they’re just resting and once they start to warm up they’ll get locked in again,” Nguyen said of his softball athletes as the team waited for action to continue and find out which team they’d be playing in the semi-finals.
“We lost our first game and then we bounced back the next three to make it to the final four, so we’re on a bit of a heater now, so we’re really excited to continue forward,” Nguyen said.
The Summer Games will continue Sunday, July 26. For more information and full results, visit bcgames.org/games/kelowna-2026/.