BENNETT, SPARCKLEN WIN CANADIAN COACHING AWARDS

Two Victoria-area coaches will receive the 2009 Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award.

Randy Bennett of Brentwood Bay and Mike Spracklen of Victoria are among the 46 coaches selected by the Coaching Association of Canada to receive the prestigious award that recognizes coaches whose athletes achieved international success during the past year at open World Championships and the Special Olympics World Winter Games.

Bennet was coach of freestyle swimmer Ryan Cochrane, 1500-metres silver medallist and 800-metres bronze medallist while Spracklen was coach of the men’s eights, winners of the world championship silver medal.

The The awards will be presented during the annual Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Sportif, scheduled to take place next week in Vancouver.

Twelve coaches were selected from British Columbia, which has a strong tradition of producing world class coaches and in turn, international success for BC’s athletes.

OTHER BC AWARD WINNERS:

• Steve Bush of North Vancouver, national coach of Canada’s Water Ski Team.
• Mark Fawcett of Nelson, coach of snowboarder Jasey Jay Anderson, world champion in parallel giant slalom.
• Dusan Grasic of Invermere, coach of alpine skier Michael Janyk, slalom bronze medallist.
• Brent Kehl of Vancouver, coach of ski cross world champion Ashleigh McIvor and bronze medallist Davey Barr.
• Rob Kober of Penticton, coach of moguls bronze medallist Vincent Marquis.
• Jozsef Nagy of Vancouver, coach of Annamay Pierse, silver medallist in 200-metres breaststroke.
• Trennon Paynter of Squamish, coach of halfpipe silver medallists Justin Dorey and Megan Gunning.
• Joe Rea of Prince George, coach of Team Canada – Jim Armstrong, Darryl Neighbour, Ina Forrest, Chris Sobkowicz , and Sonja Gaudet, world champions in wheelchair curling.
• Randal Scott of North Vancouver, coach of Special Olympic World Winter Games alpine skiing gold medallist Samantha Mayer and silver medallists Mitchell Grandberg, Kelsey Wyse, and David Boudreau.
• Richard Wooles of Vancouver, coach of track cyclist Zach Bell, winner of the Omnium silver medal.