Two University of Toronto Varsity Blues athletes are headed to the 2009 Francophone Games, September 27 – October 6, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) gold medalist Sarah Boyle (Scarborough, Ont.) will be representing Canada in the women’s high jump event, while 2008-09 CIS all-Canadian Heather Bansley (Waterdown, Ont.) is competing in the women’s beach volleyball competition.

Boyle accounted for the Blues lone gold medal at 2008-09 CIS championships, jumping 1.79m to beat out Alberta’s Lindsey Bergevin. A captain of track and field team, Boyle was also named U of T’s Clara Benson Award winner, given annually to the female student-athlete, in her graduating year, for outstanding ability in athletics, scholarship and values interfaculty and community involvement.

The fifth-year Faculty of Physical Education and Health student also earned a bronze medal at the 2009 Canadian track and field championships and world selection trials in June, clearing 1.75m at Varsity Centre.

Bansley is coming off a very successful beach volleyball season. The fifth-year English major trained for the month of July at the Canadian beach team’s training to compete camp and claimed the 2009 Ontario beach volleyball title with partner Diane Cooke.

Bansley finished the 2008-09 season ranked first in the OUA and second in the CIS, averaging 5.40 points per game and was also first in the OUA in kills per game (4.27). She, along with partner and Laval Rouge et Or alumna Julie Rodrigue, are both nationally carded athletes and were chosen to compete by national team coach Lennard Krapp.

The Francophone Games occur every four years, with over 3000 athletes from 56 different countries set to compete.

For more information, please visit the official site of the 2009 Francophone Games at http://www.jeux2009.org/Page_accueil

Notes:

Varsity Blues alumna Kate Ruediger will also be competing at the Games in athletics. She will be competing in the 400m event – an event in which she claimed the bronze medal at the 2009 Canadian track and field championships and world selection trials at Varsity Centre. She went on to win the gold medal at the 2009 Canada Summer Games in P.E.I.

2008 Olympian Massimo Bertocchi and UTTC member Mark Dillon will be competing in the decathlon and high jump events, respectively. Bertocchi is a two-time Canadian champion, while Dillon recently earned a silver medal at the 2009 Canadian track and field championships and world selection trials.
Recent graduate and Blues standout Jessi Lelliott is competing with partner Ben Saxton in the men’s beach volleyball competition. Lelliott was named a second team 2008-09 OUA all-star in his final season with the Varsity Blues.

For more information, scores and highlights on your favourite Toronto teams, please visit the home of the Varsity Blues at http://www.varsityblues.ca