The year 2002 was again an excellent one for Canada as two of our representatives were crowned World champions (as in 2001 - see last year's report). Besides our two champions (Sylvianne Moisan and Drew Becker), we also had three runners-up: Buddy Dyrda (Junior Boys), Kelly Mallette (Junior Girls) and Lucille Leis (Senior Ladies); as well as a record number of Canadians who qualified in the various championship divisions. Also, Diane Cantin became the 7th Canadian to be inducted into the NHPA Hall of Fame. Now living in Alberta, she was present to accept her award. See Diane's profile in the Horseshoe Canada Hall of Fame section (as a 1990 inductee).
Kitchener's Drew Becker, became the 4th Canadian to win the Junior Boys division and the first since 1988 when Edward Neeb won the title. Incidently, all four came from the Kitchener-Waterloo region: Ross Stevenson (1965), Steve Hohl (1978) and Edward Neeb (1988) and now Drew Becker (2002). Being only 13 years of age, Drew could eventually become the first Canadian to win that title more than once. In 2002, Drew clinched the title on his very last shoe pitched by defeating Keith Boone 40-38 in 74 shoes (last round). But the best game of the division was against the eventual runner-up, Buddy Dyrda (next-to-last round). Drew (80.0%) won 41-34 in 70 shoes against Buddy who threw 77.1% in what was to be the deciding game. What a performance by rookie Buddy Dyrda, from Victoria, B.C., who started to pitch horseshoes 15 months earlier! Our young Canucks took the first two places in the junior boys, a feat never accomplished before by two Canadians. We also had another Canadian in the group: Randy Schaefer from Grande Prairie, Alberta (formely from B.C.) who placed 7th. Randy was 2000 Canadian Junior Boys champion. See the special page dedicated to Drew Becker.
In the Junior Girls division, Kelly Mallette, as in 2001, remained undefeated in the championships until her last-round game against defending champion Shalee Sebastian. Kelly held the lead halfway during the game until Sebastian threw consecutive doubles to win 43-28 in 46 shoes. Kelly averaged 60.85% overall, an excellent performance considering the fact she entered the tournament with a 48.14% CanStat average.
Lucille Leis qualified again for the Senior Ladies finals and came very close to becoming our first champion in that division. Lucille finally lost the last and deciding game 27-45 against Laverne Fenlon (formerly Laverne Ewing). They threw respectively 65.7 and 74.3% in 70 shoes. Lucille had lost earlier to Marion Thomsen 38-40, while Laverne had dropped a game 33-40 to Edi McKinney. Shirley Kooy, from Alberta, had been runner-up in that division, losing a playoff for first in 1996 to the same Laverne Ewing.
Two Canadians qualified for the Senior Men's division finals. Casey VanderLinden took 12th with a 46.0% average. Defending champion Howard Weitzel finished 4th with 7 wins and 4 losses despite the highest average of the group with 61.25%. A new champion was crowned: Robert Garber from Ohio.
Two Canadians also qualified in the Elder men's 30' division won by Bob Logan from Indiana. Neil Yaskow from B.C. won 6 games and lost 5 averaging 66.86% to finish 6th. Former Canadian champion Ed Claussen finished 9th with 3 wins and a 64.86% average.
A record 4 Canadians qualified in the Men's division. Colin Finnie took 6th place with 10 wins and 5 losses and a 69.53% average. Only two other Canadian men had finished higher than Colin in the past: Elmer Hohl (the only Canadian to win the Men's World title) and Andre Leclerc who has finished 4th in 1993. Stan Leis placed 8th with 70.05% and 8 wins, followed by Tom Gallina who placed 10th with 6 wins and 71.58% average. Closing the march was Andre Leclerc who won one game and averaged 55.03%. Tom's first win came (round 8) against the defending champion Alan Francis. Tom (82.1) won 40-35 to Alan's 79.5%. Round 5, Colin Finnie defeated Walter Ray Williams 40-33. As a result, Brian Simmons held a one-game lead on Alan and other contenders which he managed to keep despite his loss to Paul Lacrosse (round 9). Brian defeated Walter Ray Williams 43-9 with a 93.5% (round 14) and then followed with a 93% in 114 shoes to subdue Alan Francis (86.0) 42-15. Brian had won his second title in a terrific way! Longest game of the tournament was a 122-shoe tilt between Francis (84.4) and Lacrosse (82.0) won by Alan 41-36.
In the women's division, 3 Canadians qualified for the championship rounds. Sylvianne Moisan retained her title again, becoming the third woman to win 3 consecutive years and the first since Ruth Hangen in 1972. The first one was Laura Lanham in the 1920s. Ruth holds the record with 4 straight titles. Sylvianne averaged 89.3% for her last 5 games to bring her overall average to 86.0%, her best World Tournament performance. In what was to be the deciding game against Amy Hall (round 13), Sylvianne threw 61 out of 64 for her best game: 95.3%. Amy shot 75% and lost 42-4. But the title was confirmed only when Sylvianne won her last game against Amy Francis to remain undefeated. Sylvianne was presented with a new traveller trophy for the Women's division dedicated to Vicki Chapelle Winston who won that title a record 10 times. Ontario's Sandy Janssens, 1987 World women's champion, finished 8th with 71.77%, and Angeline Moisan finished 11th with 63.98%.
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