A rookie and a veteran competitor all within the same Okotoks household.
Bob Wahlund brought home two gold medals in cycling and a bronze in landscape painting while wife Anne Wahlund made good on a goal of competing for the first time at the Alberta 55-Plus Summer Games last week in Medicine Hat.
“I enjoyed competing, it was a great experience for me,” said Anne, who competed in the horseshoes. “It was very exciting, just the fact of competing with other seniors.
“There were very few people competing in the horseshoes and I’m looking at getting a horseshoe club going here in Okotoks so we can have more people.”
Anne, 75, explained that due to just a limited number of competitors in the horseshoes she competed with the 65-Plus athletes in what was a pretty grueling schedule in the seven-person division.
“We had to play seven games because it was a round-robin and that’s with 40 horseshoes per game,” she said. “I figured I threw 210 horseshoes that weekend so my arm is a little bit longer than it was before.”
Bob, a double gold medallist in cycling at the Canada 55-Plus Games, repeated the feat in Alberta.
The septuagenarian moved into the 75-Plus division and was quickest in both the recreational men’s cycling 10km time trial as well as the 20km road race.
“I was happy with my times because I topped all my other previous times so I was pleased with that,” Bob said. “My aim there was really to qualify for the Canada Games next year because they’re in Kamloops.”
Wahlund, a prostate cancer survivor, booked his ticket to a second straight Canada Games with his double-gold under idyllic conditions in Alberta’s southeast region.
“It was really nice, not many grades in this particular run,” Bob said. “It’s pretty flat in that particular part of the country, a little town just 10 minutes east of Drumheller and it was a real nice run for everybody. The weather conditions were very good both days, some wind, but not much.”
The 75-year-old showcased his range with an artistic medal, earning the bronze in landscape painting for his acrylic depiction of a golf course in Ontario.
The Wahlunds came across the setting during their travel to the Canada Games in New Brunswick last summer.
“That had won first place prior to going there,” Bob said. “In order to qualify to get your art into Medicine Hat you had to have first-place somewhere else and it was sent into Beiseker where it had the judging.
“I was really pleased with that, a little bit of a bonus.”
Likewise for having his wife also represent Zone 2 as two Wahlunds got the chance to compete for the first time.
“It was great to have her there, just to be there and compete,” Bob said. “The competition in the horseshoes is very challenging because there are some of the older guys there, you’re shooting against some pretty good sharpshooters.
“It was a good experience for her and I’m glad she was able to compete, I think that was a little bit of a goal of hers a couple years ago so to qualify and go was good.”
Zone 2 had a tremendous showing in the Hat with 78 medals won, track-and-field was particularly fruitful for the region’s athletes with 32 medals alone along with 12 podium finishes in cycling.
For more information go to alberta55plus.ca
