Five local athletes will enjoy home track advantage, they hope, as the Canadian Junior Track & Field Championships take place at Laurentian University in Sudbury. Northland Athletic Club runners Kari Pulkkinen and Claus Rinne are both entered in the 5000m race while high jumper John Kari will face some very stiff competition.

Olympic Silver medallist Greg Joy will be in town, looking to continue a very memorable summer. Sprinter Heather Chisholm is representing the Sudbury Track and Field Club in the 100m dash, while teammate Kari Yli-Renko participates in the hammer throw.

At just 16 years of age, Yli-Renko is the youngest of the local participants, but his coach is not concerned. “He’s been popping the 16 pound hammer 40 metres in practice and that’s good by anyone’s standards,” noted Errol Gibson.

A comfortable lead came in handy for Idylwylde golfer Phyllis Crang, who survived a score of seven on her final hole of the day, capturing her club’s women’s invitational golf tournament for the umpteenth time. Crang recorded a two-day score of 170, good for a two-stroke victory over Sue Ethier of Spruce Needles (Timmins).

Idylwylde clubmates Beth Sturtridge and Edna Johnson finished third and fourth respectively, carding scores of 178 and 179 respectively. While Crang has captured the event multiple times, this marked the first occasion her name would be inscribed on the Bernice Green Trophy.

The Dorans Cup was retired two years ago, with defending champion Jean Stewart the first to hoist the new hardware. Stewart finished fifth this year with a final score of 182.

The Girard Texaco Giants moved into sole possession of second place in the Sudbury Regional Major Fastball League, picking up three of a possible four points in a twilight doubleheader with the International Hotel.

Steve Lebedick (Giants) and Guenther Schmidt (International) went toe to toe, surrendering seven hits apiece as the teams opened with a 6-6 tie. The nightcap was not nearly as close, with pitcher Butch Benoit picking up the win in a 7-1 victory over the Hotel men.

Out in Capreol, the Mazzucas remained two points back of Girard Texaco, upending Park Nolin 7-5.

Merging with the fledgling Sudbury Regional Juvenile League, the NOHA (Northern Ontario Hockey Association) Jr B League will increase to seven teams this coming season, according to league commissioner Jim Harber of Lively.

The loop will include the Espanola Eagles, Onaping Falls Huskies, Capreol Hawks, Rayside-Balfour Canadians, Garson Native Sons, Sudbury North Stars and Coniston Cubs for the 1976-77 campaign, with teams playing an unbalanced 42 game schedule.

The Laurentian University men’s basketball team are hoping for a smooth transition. With successful head coach Ken Shields heading back to his western roots, accepting a position with the University of Victoria, the Voyageurs were going to challenged to find another top-end replacement.

Yet they believe they have exactly that in the form of Ritchie Spears, a long-time friend of Shields’. Spears, who has coached, played or conducted clinics in North America, Europe and the Middle East, moves to Sudbury after guiding the Dawson College Blues in Montreal for the past four years.

Under Shields, voted coach of the year last season, the Voyageurs have won the OUA Eastern Conference championship twice, have perennially cracked the country’s top ten, with the team finishing fourth at nationals in Halifax last year.

The Sudbury Cycling Club can’t beat these odds. All four of their OCA (Ontario Cycling Association) licensed junior riders have been selected to join eight other provincial team members for the Canadian Championships at Mount Royal from August 19th to 22nd.

Paul Girolametto (17), Gary Trevisiol (16), Dino Campagnaro (18) and Claudio Venier (16) will head to Montreal after taking part in the second annual Coniston Club Allegri Criterium on Sunday. The quartet are guided by coach Battista Muredda and will face the same eight-mile circuit used during the Olympic Games this summer.

Preparing for the Ontario Juvenile Lacrosse Championships later this month, Sudbury coach Mike Jubinville has organized an exhibition series of games this weekend, with teams coming in from Timmins and Kapuskasing.

Jubinville is hoping to draw the Huntsville Hawks of the Ontario Lacrosse Association Jr C circuit to town before his team leaves for Stratford, facing the best in the province from August 27th to 29th.

A three-goal effort by striker George Krauss went for naught as the Sudbury Cyclones dropped a 4-3 decision to the Toronto Falcons in an unusually high scoring National Soccer League (NSL) match Saturday night at Queen’s Athletic Field.

“We made one giant step backwards,” said Sudbury semi-pro coach Fulvio Stepancich. “Tonight, we were as bad as we were two months ago.” Three of the game’s seven goals came courtesy of penalty shots, including a pair from Kraus, as Toronto built up a 3-2 first half lead.

Joseph Bodvra, Kaz Golen, Pawel Kowalski and Jerry Panek scored for the visitors, who dropped a 2-0 decision to the Cyclones when the teams first met at Lamport Stadium a few weeks back.

Andy Akey drilled a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning off pitcher Roman Woloszczuk, lifting the Clarke Phillips Copper Cliff Redmen to a 6-5 triumph over the Sudbury Shamrocks in Nickel Region Senior Baseball League action.

Mike Sanchioni finished with three hits for the Redmen, including a two-run double, while Rick Maunu belted a solo shot and a sacrifice fly for the Shamrocks.