Canadian Interuniversity Sport – OTTAWA (CIS) – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced on Monday the six student-athletes and three staff members who will represent Canada at the 16th FISU world university golf championships at Planchetorte Golf Club in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, from June 23 to 26, 2016.   

Official website: www.wuc-golf2016.com

FISU website: www.fisu.net/en

Making up the Canadian women’s roster for the biennial competition are Michaela Abey (Abbotsford, B.C.) from the University of Victoria, Kristen Lee (Edmonton) from the University of Alberta and Alexandra Pelletier (Montreal) from Laval University.

The men’s lineup is comprised of UVic’s Andrew Funk (Victoria) as well as University of Waterloo teammates Gajan Sivabalasingham (Stouffville, Ont.) and Dylan Cave (Kitchener, Ont.).

The group will be accompanied in France by head of delegation Robin Stewart from the U of A, women’s coach Justin Clews from UVic and men’s coach Brad Sims from Waterloo. 

Both Sivabalasingham and Cave have worn the Maple Leaf at FISU events in recent years. The former placed 72^nd at the 2012 world university championships in Liberec, Czech Republic, while the latter posted a solid 16^th-place finish out of 60 male competitors at the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju, South Korea.

Stewart also has previous FISU experience as head of delegation and coach of the Canadian women’s team in Gwangju, as well as head of delegation and men’s coach at the 2014 FISU championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Pelletier had an impressive showing at the 2015 Canadian university/college championships at Cutten Fields in Guelph, Ont. (May 26-29), where she claimed the bronze medal. Lee and Abey finished 17^th and 19^th in the women’s standings, respectively.

In men’s action, Cave shot a 68 in the final round to finish in a tie for 10^th position, while Sivabalasingham and Funk tied for 31^st.   

“It is always a privilege and honour to wear the Team Canada colours and represent our nation and our universities on the world stage,” said Stewart. “Our coaching staff is excited to work with some outstanding student-athletes from across the country. We had top-10 results at the last two FISU events, with our men placing fifth at the 2014 world championships and sixth at the 2015 Universiade. It shows the quality of players that university golf programs in Canada are producing. 

“I feel that the student-athletes we have on our roster this time around have the ability to duplicate or better those results. Gajan and Dylan from Waterloo both have experience representing Canada at large international competitions, and Andrew has been one of the leaders on a very strong University of Victoria team this year. On the women’s side, Alexandra from Laval has been one of the best female players in Canadian university golf over her career and is a great competitor. Michaela has been one of the best golfers at UVic over the last number of years and Kristen is the best female golfer that has ever played at the University of Alberta.”

At the 2014 FISU championships in Switzerland, the Canadian men placed fifth out of 17 teams and the women ended up 11^th out of 17 nations. In individual competition, Scott Secord from the University of British Columbia was the top Canadian male thanks to his 10^th position, while Megan Woodland from UVic had the best women’s result with her 23^rd place.

Since Canada’s first FISU championships appearance in 2002, the country has posted three top-five finishes on the men’s side, including fourth in 2006 (Italy), fifth in 2010 (Spain) and fifth in 2014. The Canadian women have placed eighth on three occasions, including in 2002 (Taiwan), 2004 (Thailand) and 2010.  

Individually, the best Canadian results in history belong to Durham College’s William Mitchell in men’s action (8^th in 2006) and UVic’s Anne Balser in the women’s tournament (12^th in 2010).

Spain captured both FISU team titles in 2014.

CANADIAN ROSTER

Name                           University       Hometown                  Academic Program                           

Women

Michaela Abey            Victoria            Abbotsford, B.C.         Humanities     

Kristen Lee                  Alberta             Edmonton, Alta.          Business

Alexandra Pelletier      Laval               Montreal, Que.             Political Science

Men

Andrew Funk               Victoria            Victoria, B.C.               Social Sciences

Gajan Sivabalasingham            Waterloo          Stouffville, Ont.                       Mathematics & Business

Dylan Cave                  Waterloo          Kitchener, Ont.                        Geoscience     

Head of delegation: Robin Stewart (University of Alberta)

Women’s coach: Justin Clews (University of Victoria)

Men’s coach: Brad Sims (University of Waterloo)     

ALL-TIME CANADIAN RESULTS AT FISU GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS

2014 (Crans-Montana, Switzerland)

Team rankings (women): 11^th (17 teams)

Team rankings (men): 5^th (17 teams)

Best individual result (women): 23^rd, Megan Woodland, University of Victoria

Best individual result (men): 10^th, Scott Secord, University of British Columbia

2012 (Liberec, Czech Republic)

Team rankings (women): 10^th (16 teams)

Team rankings (men): 9^th (19 teams)

Best individual result (women): 16^th, Megan Woodland, University of Victoria

Best individual result (men): 20^th, Charles Côté, Laval University

2010 (Malaga, Spain)

Team rankings (women): 8^th

Team rankings (men): 5^th

Best individual result (women): 12^th, Anne Balser, University of Victoria

Best individual result (men): 10^th, Garrett Rank, University of Waterloo

2008 (Sun City, South Africa)

Team rankings (women): 12^th (13 teams)

Team rankings (men): 7^th (14 teams)

Best individual result (women): 23^rd, Christina Spence Proteau, University of Victoria

Best individual result (men): 20^th, Andrew Robb, University of British Columbia

2006 (Turin, Italy)

Team rankings (women): 13^th (14 teams)

Team rankings (men): 4^th (15 teams)

Best individual result (women): 35^th, Danielle Greene, University of Toronto

Best individual result (men): 8^th, William Mitchell, Durham College

2004 (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand)

Team rankings (women): 8^th (9 teams)

Team rankings (men): 10^th (11 teams)

Best individual result (women): 24^th, Jana Haggins, University of British Columbia

Best individual result (men): 26^th, Jim Zwolak, Humber College

2002 (Taoyuan, Taiwan)

Team rankings (women): 8^th (8 teams)

Team rankings (men): 10^th (10 teams)

Best individual result (women): 28^th, Jill Hardy, University of Manitoba

Best individual result (men): 33^rd, Jason Horsley, Camosun College

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, over 12,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 56 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:

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For further information, please contact:

Michel Bélanger        

Communications & Media Relations

Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Off: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25

Cell: (613) 447-6334

belanger@universitysport.ca