Louisa Tsang of Burnaby was a big winner in biathlon at the B.C. Winter Games in Vernon last weekend.
The 16-year-old New Westminster Secondary student won the senior girls' indvidual event, while placing runner-up in both the sprint and super sprint.
Recently, Tsang, a petty officer first class sea cadet with Fraser Corps in New Westminster, also won the provincial six-kilometre individual biathlon competition. She also took gold at the B.C. Cup races in Kelowna prior to the Games.
Tsang's first appearance at the Winter Games in 2010 was unique in that competitors had to run the course because of a lack of snow.
Tsang learned the skills of biathlon from her father and proved a natural when she began in the sport at the age of 12. She won the zone competition in her first-ever race.
"I didn't do cross-country (skiing) before. My only sport was downhill skiing when I was little," said Tsang.
"It's just my dad. He was my coach when I was younger," said Tsang. "I find this sport motivates me to go farther in life and achieve more. I really hope I can participate at it a little longer."
Tsang's gold medal was one of five individual and team medals won by Burnaby athletes at the weekend Games.
Burnaby martial artists picked up nine individual medals in karate.
Aya Kitaoka led the way with gold at plus-55 kilogram girls' kumite or sparring.
Panwan Sidhu and Alexandra Zaborniak both won silver medals in girls' kumite. Jai Sanghera also took a second-place medal in the boys' plus-55kg weight class.
Nicolo Wakelin won a silver medal in boys' kata or forms and a bronze medal in under-44kg kumite.
Also finishing third in kumite were Joel Tai, Cassia Kitaoka and Zoe Fong.
The girls' team of Alexandria Zaborniak, Cassia and Aya Kitaoka and Sidhu won the team gold.
The boys' team of Joel Tai, Kieren Quan, Sanghera and Wakelin took the third-place team medal.
In judo, Abdumadzhit Smazov won a silver medal in the men's under-73kg weight class. Evan Enriquez picked up a bronze at under-50kg.
Luka Cuperlovic, Mitsuki Ikejo, Billy Trengrove, Smazov and Enriquez shared a team bronze medal.
Burnaby athletes also won four medals in archery.
Elaine Plath took top spot in the girls' barebow match play, while Keane Oates was runner-up in the boys' recurve match play competition and third in the two-day aggregate.
Yolanda Lan finished in third place in the girls' aggregate barebow two-day event.
Benjamin Papp picked up a silver medal in juvenile men's figure skating, while Austin Ma was a bronze medallist in pre-novice.
In badminton, Jeffrey Yu Tang placed second in boys' singles. Tang also shared a silver with Harmony Ky in the mixed team event.
Mariko Abe-Ziegler, Celine May and Nikita May shared a bronze medal in girls' team gymnastics.
Brianne Chow, Megan Howes, Marissa Lopez and Jennifer Shannon helped zone 4 to the gold medal in ringette.
Two zone 4 netball teams, made up entirely of players from Burnaby, also won gold and bronze, respectively.
The team of Lianna Wong, Megan Widmer, Virginia Ukpabi, Tara Preissl, Gillian Marshall, Michelle Lin, Stefanie Li, Valerie Lang, Sophia Chen and Julia Borghesi won gold at the Games.
The zone team of Sharan Hothi, Prubjeet Hundle, Danielle Kyei, Marlene Mazariegos, Kirsten McElgunn, Brianne Siu, Shelby Smith and Ashley Steele took the bronze.
Kiersten Hagen and Shota Inoda finished first and second in their respective speed skating finals.
The zone bantam girls ice hockey team, including Justine Johnson and Olivia Ramos from St. Thomas More Collegiate and Notre Dame regional secondary's Carly Spagnuolo and Claudia Funaro, tied for first place in round-robin play, but missed the medal round on goal differential.
The Fraser River Delta zone team earned 36 medals, including eight gold.
Vancouver-Squamish topped the medal standings, taking 34 gold medals, while edging out Thompson-Okanagan by one medal 81-80 for first place overall.
