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SPORTS Editor: Norm Nelson Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: nnelson@haltonsearch.com \\ 1 .1 >.\i SI )AY. JULY 3 1 . 2 ( « ) 2 · P a ^ c 1)1 See m e before yo u Gi | C H I U 'S L E K I .:» O I)C n r 2«SKi?alWindv>r Jessica Shepley Shepley wins Star Amateur, gears up for the nationals Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver OUCH! H elene R obertson from Speers Road Paint and Flooring took one o ff the face during her G len A bbey Slow Pitch gam e Sunday against R em ax at Palerm o Park. She was alright and resum ed her at-bat. By Norm Nelson BEAVER SP O R T S EDITOR M elanie Hawtin ju st turned 14 and is just going into high school this Septem ber at Blakelock High School, having graduated from Grade 8 at Brookdale Public School. Nevertheless, she qualified for the world paralym pic cham pionships which are being held this year in France. We're talking about the sen ior world's, against the very best ath letes in the world. Not junior or age group competition. Hawtin qualified at the Canadian senior paralympic team trials held recently in Victoria, scooping up two bronze, a fourth and a fifth place fin ish. In addition, her times met the sen ior world qualification standards. She can't go, though. Canada won't let her. As her mother, M arcia Hawtin explained: "She qualified time wise, but she's too young to go to the World's. You have to be 16. That's a Canadian thing." M elanie is disappointed, but mother Marcia isn't too out o f joint. "That's okay with us, because as far as we're concerned, she's only 13 -- well she ju st turned 14. If you get to the World's too early, and then what if you place 10th or 20th or something, it's discouraging. "You might as well wait your time out and go when you can do good." Ironically, M elanie will turn 16 in an Olympic year, and it would be a dream come true for her to qualify. "I want to go the 2004 and 2008 paralympics," she said, not mincing words. In the meantime, while she is unable to go to this year's World's, even though she qualified for it, she m anaged to take out her frustration at the Ontario Sum m er Games, held earlier this month in Kitchener/W aterloo. To put it bluntly, she proved to be a very big fish in a small pond. She cut through the Ontario Summer Games like a knife has been able to cut through butter over this hot sum- Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver HOT WHEELS! M elanie H aw tin, pictured, here, at her elem entary school track m eet, qualified for the senior W orld's, but can 't go because C anada has an age restriction o f 16 years o f age. mer, winning six gold medals in 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500 and 5,000m races. She admits "I didn't really have m uch competition." She concedes the medal haul did n't surpass the thrill of qualifying for the World's in Victoria. In fact, she probably hopes organ izers don't read this, but she actually tried to trade away her gold medals. You know how kids are: she got to see Curtis Joseph, who was in town signing autographs on Sunday at the Canadian Tire on Highway 5 and Dundas (see page A7) -- and they got to talking and she wondered if he might want to do a six-for-one gold medal trade, handing over his Olympic gold medal! The Ontario Summer Games offi cially ended Hawtin's competitive season until next March. But she'll keep on training. "I train two hours every day, and I have different schedules to do every day," she said. She also wants to add road races, feeling the longer distances will improve her stamina. The soon-to-be high school stu dent said she enjoys the distance races -- the 1500 and 5000m races -- but feels she would be more com petitive in the sprints. "If I was against the world's top athletes, I think I would do better at the shorter distances," she said. Hopefully, we'll find out in 2004! Juniors in Ont. final The Oakville Little League juniors (14 year olds) play the provincial championship game today (W ednesday) at 5 p.m. in Ottawa against the host Kanata team. The winner moves on to the nation al championship which kicks off on Friday. Well, actually the winner does n 't have to move anywhere as the Ottawa area is also hosting the Canadian national Little League cham pionship. Oakville, which won the district championship, advanced into today's Travis Smith with the put-out at sec ond base in earlier district playdown action against Stoney Creek. final with a 6-2 win on Monday against a spunky Orleans team from Ottawa. Paul Jurgaitis notched his second win of the tournament. It was a taut 1-1 game until the fifth inning when Oakville scored four runs, plus one more in the seventh for the win. The host Kanata team earned a berth in the final with a win in the other semifinal game, 5-3 over previously undefeated Pembroke. Oakville will send Jason Tuske to the mound for today's championship game. He won his previous start, 10-1 against Corwall in the preliminary round opener last Wednesday. (See 'Coach Downer' page D2) Fans who braved the rain last Friday at Scarboro Golf and Country Club were rewarded with perhaps a preview of the LPGA Tour in a few years. In a tight, exciting show, Oakville's Jessica Shepley outlasted Hamilton's Alena Sharp 2-and-l in their continuing rivalry for the Toronto Star Women's Amateur Championship. Exhibiting golf close to the calibre of Canadian LPGA Tour players Lorie Kane and Dawn Coe-Jones, Shepley and Sharp put on a clinic of accurate 250yard drives and crisp approach shots. Often, their balls were sitting side-byside in the fairway. "Both of these girls are easily capable of playing on the tour one day," said Oakville native Sandra Post, Shepley's coach and the only Canadian ever to win an LPGA major golf tournament. "The level of play was like a tour event right now," added Canadian ama teur icon Marlene Streit, 68, who was eliminated after a brave effort in the quarter-finals on Thursday. Streit and Post are advisers in The Star tourney. "The way both of us were hitting the ball, I guess it was good to watch; if we keep playing like this, we can make the pros," said Sharp, the 2000 Toronto Star champion who represents Brantford Golf and Country Club. The difference was that Sharp fal tered down the stretch. She was one up until the 11th hole. The match was all square until the parthree No. 14 when Sharp lofted her tee shot into a wet sand trap, then botched her second shot into another trap. Shepley, representing Trafalgar Golf and Country Club, took advantage to gain the lead and increased it to 2-up on No. 16 when Sharp's drive went into the trees and Shepley canned a 40-foot birdie putt. The winning shot by Shepley was an approach from the fairway to within five feet on No. 17. Sharp could not make her birdie putt and conceded the match. "I made mistakes on four or five holes coming in," said Sharp, who won the Canadian junior title and the Ontario amateur in 1999. "That's too many mis takes for match play." Shepley said she was "surprised when a very good player makes those mistakes. I think we both wanted to play one another. I always respect her very much. She has a great work ethic and is very determined. We both wanted to win this." It was the first time Shepley has played in this event. The powerful, aggressive Shepley will play in the Canadian amateur cham pionship next month in New Brunswick while Sharp goes to Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., for the U.S. amateur champi onship. "My goal over the next few weeks is to get ready for the Canadians," Shepley said. "I want to work on my wedge play and my putting." The 5-foot-9 Shepley and the 5-foot5 Sharp are also rivals in the NCAA where they both play on golf scholar ships, Shepley for the University of Tennessee and Sharp for New Mexico State. So far, Sharp has a slight edge in uni versity action, but Shepley has the upper hand in Ontario amateur play over the past two summers, winning the Ontario amateur last year and finishing ahead of Sharp at this year's Ontario amateur. In the semifinals on Thursday morn ing, Shepley came from two holes down on the back nine to defeat Nisha Sadekar of Emerald Hills G olf Club in Stouffville 2-and-l. Sharp needed a playoff hole to beat Renata Young of Mandarin Golf and Country Club in Markham. - from TorStar News Service Peter McCusker · Oakville Beaver