(Below) Merritt’s Allison Moore in singles’ action on Saturday. (Ian Webster/Herald)

(Below) Merritt’s Allison Moore in singles’ action on Saturday. (Ian Webster/Herald)

The seven young athletes who represented Merritt at the 2016 BC Winter Games in Penticton this past week are back home now — tired, but very proud of their accomplishments.

All seven were members of the Zone 2 (Thompson-Okanagan) badminton team that finished fourth overall in the sport, which was held at the Okanagan College gymnasium in the Peach City.

The Zone 2 team, with a 3-3 record, was just edged out for the bronze medal by the Zone 3 squad from Vancouver Island-Central Coast which finished up at 4-2.

The gold medal went to Zone 4 (Fraser River) with a perfect 6-0 record, while Zone 5 (Vancouver-Coastal) took the silver at 5-1.

In individual competition, held on the Friday, both Merritt’s Talon Zakall and Rose Howarth were consolation final winners in the boy’s and girl’s singles events repectively, losing their opening games, then going a perfect three-for-three in the consolation bracket.

The mixed doubles team of Drew Kanigan and Breanna Ouellet, and the girls doubles tandem of Allison Moore and Niah Prowal (all from Merritt) were just edged out for the bronze medal in their events. Both pairings finished fourth overall.

Over 1,700 athletes in 17 sports took part in this year’s BC Winter Games.