The St. Albert firsts can advance to a fourth consecutive Labatt’s Cup provincial final with a victory today against the Clansmen. Kickoff is 4 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
The winner of the Ken Ann Cup in the northern Alberta playoffs will scrum down against the Calgary Hornets, the top team in the premier table at 10-2, or the Calgary Saints at provincials Oct. 1. Game time is 4 p.m. at Ellerslie.
The firsts finished third overall at 9-3 with one more win and five extra points than the fourth-place Clan. The long-time rugby rivals split their season series. In mid-May the Clan squeaked out the winning try on the last play of the game in the 25-20 thriller. In the rematch the firsts pulled off a tough 24-12 decision in the second last game before the playoffs.
The 10th straight win by the 2010 provincial champions was the 41-7 playoff result against the eighth-place Lep/Tigers last Saturday. It was the last home game of the year at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
Online registrations for the ninth annual Fall Challenge ended Wednesday night, with 406 runners and walkers confirmed for Sunday’s event on the Red Willow trail system.
Last year’s record turnout was 494 runners and walkers.
Late registrations will be accepted today at the St. Albert Running Room and Sunday between 7 and 8 a.m. at the race venue at Kingswood Park. Participants can compete in the 21.1-kilometre half-marathon walk/run, 10-km walk/run or the five-km walk/run. There’s also a 0.5-km kids loop.
Start times are 8 a.m. for the half-marathon walk, 9 a.m. for the half-marathon run (two laps on the trail), 10 km (one lap) and five km and 11:30 a.m. for the kids loop.
The 2010 half-marathon winner was A.J. Rankel of Edmonton with a time of one hour and 21 minutes. The fastest female was Wietske Eikelenboom of St. Albert at 1:31:12 for seventh place overall out of 253 runners.
So far, 213 runners have signed up for the half-marathon.
The Fall Challenge is hosted by the Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club. For more information, visit www.sva-club.com or www.events.runningroom.com.
Donations to the St. Albert Food Bank will also be accepted at the event.
The regular season in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League starts this weekend for the St. Albert Sabres.
Tonight at 7 p.m. the Sabres host the 2010 provincial champion SSAC Southgate Lions at Akinsdale Arena.
Sunday the Sabres play the Maple Leafs at 7:30 p.m. at Millwoods Arena.
In the pre-season the Sabres finished 0-4.
The new head coach of the Sabres is Terry Ballard, the former bench boss of the NAIT Ooks for 14 years.
Last season the Sabres placed second in the nitro north division at 23-7-3 and were knocked out of the playoffs by the Lions in the divisional final.
