Out & About

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/06/2011 (5228 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rower and cyclist Theo Dubois, who died on June 10 not long after his 100th birthday, was one of our province’s greatest athletes.

In 1980, when the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame had to select the members of its first induction class, the list of candidates came from more than a century of sport. While Dubois didn’t make the final list, he was inducted the second year, which shows how highly he was rated.

In 1941, Dubois was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s outstanding athlete after he won both the U.S. and Canadian singles rowing championship. His resume includes singles and pairs victories at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta.

Dubois took up bicycle racing in the mid-1930s and won a race from Winnipeg to Winnipeg Beach three times. In those days they raced over a road that was 12 miles of pavement and 38 miles of gravel. A member of the Winnipeg Rowing Club since he was 14, Dubois was still rowing on the Red River in his nineties.   

***

Baton twirlers aged 7 to 21 from across Canada will be strutting their stuff , July 2 to 7, in the national championships at the Investors Group Athletic Centre at the University of Manitoba.

Joyce Ormshaw, who has been around batons almost forever, expects around 225 entries in individual, duet, pair, group and team events. Manitoba will be represented by 61 athletes from the Aerial Fusion, Greendell, Magic n’ Motion, Winnipeg Tempo Twirlers and Anola Heat clubs. The Manitoba Baton Twirling Association, which Joyce always reminds us is a member of Sport Manitoba, is hosting the competition. Admission is free.

***

Darien Reimer is just 14, but she’s already in her second year of officiating a sport where officials seldom get much respect: soccer.

At this point of her career, the Golden Gate student is working games for the younger teams, but she seems determined to develop her skills and officiate at a higher level. T&C spotted her working as an assistant referee in the U10 girls rec final on June 5 during the Children’s Hospital tournament at John Blumberg. That turned out to be her fifth game of the day and 15th of the four-day tournament.

Darien didn’t take a break the next day as she was back on a pitch at Assiniboine Park serving as the head referee. Darien is part of a soccer family. Her mother Lyla Priestley works for the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association and her sister Dae-Lynn, 11, learned that day that she had been selected to the Winnipeg team for the 2012 Manitoba Summer Games.