Manitoba scores 8-medal day at Canada Summer Games Thursday

Team Manitoba had a huge medal haul at the 2017 Canada Summer Games on Thursday, taking home its first gold medal, along with four silver and three bronze.

After winning a pair of bronze medals on Monday, Manitoba was held off the podium on Tuesday and Wednesday. But the province's athletes made their presence known on Thursday.

Team Manitoba capped off the winning day with a bronze and a new provincial record in the women's 4x100 relay. 

Winnipeg runner Victoria Tachinski edged out Alberta's Natalie McDougall and Ontario's Katrina Innanen in the women's 400-metre race to take gold in the afternoon.

Just before Tachinski reached the podium, Winnipeg's Regan Hofley was being presented with a silver medal in the female Special Olympics 100-metre final.

Her time of 13.990 was just behind Ontario (gold, 13.790) and ahead of Nova Scotia (bronze, 14.000).

The day's medal take started in the morning with the women's rowing team — Emma Gray, Abby Dent, Justine Gillert, and Gabriella Yakemow — winning bronze in the quadruple sculls.

"Pretty surreal. It's a pretty incredible experience. I don't think it's really hit any of us that we just won a bronze medal at the Canada Games," Gillert told CBC News in an interview after the race. "After all the pain and we caught our breath … We all kind of teared up a little."

Gray is the flag-bearer for Team Manitoba in the Games. She said the group knew going into their final heat that they had a good shot at making it to the podium.

"We kind of just kept our heads forward and made a pact that the only way we were going to see a boat was if we were ahead of them," she said.

Yakemow said each member of the group takes turns supporting each other.

"We're all each other's rock," she said.

• Women's rowing team wins Manitoba's 3rd medal at Canada Summer Games
• Full coverage of the 2017 Canada Summer Games

Manitoba then took its first silver medal in the triathalon relay.

Kyla Roy, 18, her sister Caitlyn, 15, and teammate Claire Healey, 17, streaked to the finish line with a time of 1:06:14, about two minutes behind first-place B.C. and about 15 seconds ahead of the bronze medallists from Ontario. 

Caitlyn Roy grabbed a Manitoba flag from a Team Manitoba mission staffer near the end and ran through the line with the flag streaming behind her.

"The feeling was amazing," she said. "Oh man — just, like, unreal. It was just so great to have your teammates there at the finish line, cheering you on. It was great."

Healey said it was a treat to compete alongside her teammates in the relay event, rather than against them.

"Even though I always cheer all my teammates on, even if we're racing against each other, it's just cool to have that experience as a group and to stand on that podium with these girls that I've come to know so well," she said.

It was the second medal of the Games for Kyla Roy, who earned the bronze in triathlon earlier this week, which was the first medal of the Games for Team Manitoba.

She told CBC on Monday that she was happy just to finish in the gruelling heat. Temperatures soared to 38 degrees with the humidity that day.

"I just felt happy to be done. I was hurting out there," Roy said. "It felt great to finish and just cross the finish line."

The day's second bronze came in the early afternoon when Tegan Turner raced to third place in the female 100 metre final at the University of Manitoba stadium.

Her time of 11.810 was just behind Ontario (silver, 11.680) and Quebec (gold, 11.630).

Then things really began to hop, with two silver medals in the Male Athletics High Jump and Female Athletics Triple Jump.

Nathan Smith jumped in between two competitors from Quebec in high jump, while Rebeckah Eckert also nabbed a silver in triple jump, between two people from Ontario.

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