Locals haul in tennis and pickleball medals at Canada Senior Games

Several Niagara residents, including members of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Tennis and Pickleball Clubs, returned from Quebec City recently with Canada Senior Games medals draped around their necks. 

Over 2,000 athletes aged 55 and over participated from Aug. 26 to 30 in various locations around the Quebec City area. The 20 events in the competition, held every two years, included track and field, cribbage, golf, curling and slo-pitch.

Competing as part of Team Ontario, five doubles teams from the region captured gold in their respective tennis divisions. 

Fran Doran and Kim Laidlaw were tops in the Ladies 65-plus division. Maria Dinga and Rosalyn Hatch won in Ladies 70-plus, while Dinga also teamed up with Manny Umoquit to capture the Mixed 70-plus doubles title. In turn, Umoquit paired with George Nijbert in Mens 60-plus for his second gold medal, while Hank Andrulis and Gerry McIlhone were champions in Mens 60-plus. 

Doran, Laidlaw, Umoquit and McIlhone are all members of the NOTL Tennis Club. Just a week earlier Umoquit and McIlhone had paired up to take the club’s Mens A Division title in the annual doubles tournament on the courts at Veterans Memorial Park in town.

Also members of the NOTL Tennis Club are the duo of Ken McGillivray and Gerald Pepe, who earned bronze medals in pickleball in the Mens 65-plus, Level 3.0 category.

It was the first Canada Senior Games for Pepe, who says it was McGillivray’s idea to form a doubles team to compete in a qualifying tournament in Kitchener in April, which they won. McGillivray had previously won a gold medal in tennis at the 2022 Senior Games. 

Pepe is also a member of the NOTL Pickleball Club. He plays the sport five times a week and adds a couple of sessions on the tennis courts in the same time frame. He also cycles every day.

“Ken’s an avid tennis player, and he’s quick as a bunny,” says the 74-year-old. “We play pretty well together. We use his speed and combine that with my skills and we thought we could go far, especially if we could play against others in their 70s, because we’re both still quite fit.” 

Despite that, the pair’s first match at Laval University didn’t go as well as they had hoped. 

“They put construction tape down on the tennis court for the pickleball lines,” explains Pepe. “We were tripping over it. I was really a nervous wreck in our first game. We lost to the same guys we beat in Kitchener for the Ontario title. It was our undoing.”

McGillivray and Pepe went 3-2 in the preliminaries, tying with two other teams. Based on points differential, they ended up playing for the bronze medal and won. 

Pepe also earned a silver medal in a mixed doubles category with teammate Sylvia  Sylvia Malgadey, a Kitchener-Waterloo resident, who represented Canada in athletics in the 1984 Olympic Games. 

“Team Ontario paired us up,” says Pepe. “Ken and I  invited Sylvia and her doubles partner (Barb Monteith) down to Central Community Centre in June. At the games, Sylvia and I ended up in second place in our pool. Then we played second place in the other pool and beat them. Our final game was against the first-place team from our pool. They were both 6’4” and were bang-ballers. We were happy to get silver.”

Pepe, who brought his wife Jude along to the games,  is still on a high after the experience in La Belle Province. Like the Olympics, the event opened and closed with ceremonies involving the athletes as the centre of attention. And they had the opportunity to socialize with other competitors from across the country, including a large, vocal contingent from The Yukon who displayed exemplary team spirit. 

Ontario placed first last week with 81 gold, 77 silver and 53 bronze medals for a total of 211. Alberta was second with 199 while the host province took home 181.

The next Canada Senior Games are slated for 2026, though the host city has not yet been chosen. Pepe says he plans to be there wherever it is.