Hugh Dow
Special to The Lake Report

Players from NOTL and across the Niagara region brought home the gold from the Canada Senior Games in Quebec City from Aug. 26 to 30.

More than 2,000 seniors from across the country participated in the event in a wide range of sports.

To qualify, athletes had to have won their event at the Ontario Senior Games and before that at the Niagara Senior Region Games.

Niagara-on-the-Lake Tennis Club members Fran Doran and Kim Laidlaw won gold in the women’s 65+ category and NOTL’s Manny Umoquit partnered with Maria Dinga to take gold in mixed 70+ doubles.

Umoquit also won gold with partner George Nijbert in the men’s 70+ competition while McIlhone teamed with Hank Andrulis to bring home gold in men’s 60+.

In the pickleball competition, NOTL Tennis Club members Ken McGillivray and his partner Gerald Pepe won a bronze medal.

Niagara’s Gerald Pepe also won a Silver medal with his partner Sylvia Malgadey in the Mixed event.

Meanwhile, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Tennis Club’s popular men’s and women’s doubles tournament wrapped up with perfect late-summer weather and intense competition.

Thanks to a large number of entries, the men’s tourney featured A and B divisions and the women’s competition had one division.

Men’s A division: From pool play, Manny Umoquit and Gerry McIlhone emerged as the overall winners from round-robin play on one side of the draw while Rob Lipovsky and Brad Butler emerged as winners on the other side.

Rob Booker and Adam Wodz and Mohsin Kamran and Steve Tremblay placed second in their respective draws and met in the consolation final.

Umoquit and McIlhone won the championship final in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 over Lipovsky and Butler. In the consolation final, Kamran and Tremblay defeated Booker Adam Wodz 6-2, 6-3.

Women’s division: Four teams advanced to the championship semifinals from round-robin play and four second-place teams went to the consolation semis.

Charlene Duras and Nancy Marchese defeated Wendy Dell and Rosie Sherman in one semi and Shannon Brander and Karen Rhind defeated Paula Lepp and Ann Davies in the other. In the finals, Duras and Marchese were victorious over Brander and Rhind, 6-4, 6-2.

In the women’s consolation round, Cathy Buis and Pippa de Leonardis defeated Patricia Spagnol and Yoko Miele in one semifinal and in the other, Margaret Hobbs and Kelly Larmour beat Sarah Chapman Jay and Bo Wang Frappe.

The final was a hard fought battle, with Buis and de Leonardis winning the first set 6-2.

Hobbs and Kelly Larmour bounced back to take the second 7-5, so a 10-point tiebreaker was needed to crown the winner.

Buis and de Leonardis won the tiebreaker 10-3 in a well-played, exciting match.

Men’s B division: Four pairs emerged from the round-robin to play in the championship round and four second-place teams qualified for the consolation championship.

In the championship semifinals, Michael Logue and Denis Davicino won a nail-biter over Rob Lamond and Doug Campbell.

Tied at six games apiece and 30-30 when time was called, the match came down to one sudden-death point. That point went to Logue and Davicino in a hard-fought match.

In the other championship semi, Jean Lalonde and Rick Bennet defeated Jim O’Gorman and Bill Devolin.

In the consolation semis, George Dell and David Rodgers beat Dennis McCarthy and Maz Sen, while Enzo Mancuso and Peter Buis ousted Mac MacSween and Terry Ratkovsky.

The championship final saw Logue and Davicino defeat Lalonde and Bennet 6-4, 6-1. In the consolation championship, Mancuso and Peter Buis edged Dell and Rodgers, 6-2, 7-6.