One bowling team from the Northwest Territories came home with gold while another made it to the playoffs at the 2026 Inter-Provincial Championship in Winnipeg.
Dale Bouchard is the coach for NWT Team A, who won gold. She said everyone at the tournament was very happy for the Territories to be performing as well as they did.
“We had a lot of cheering going on for us,” said Bouchard.
The Inter-Provincial Championship is a five-pin bowling tournament for teams with lower averages and is open to teams across the country. This year, 18 teams represented nine provinces and the NWT from April 23-25.
Stephen O’Brien doesn’t remember a bowling team from the NWT placing first in this tournament since he started as president of Bowling NWT.
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“Going into any of the tournaments, we’re always the underdog, nobody expects a lot from us. I think we earned our spot,” said Bouchard.
Bouchard said there was some luck involved when some of the teams they played against bowled below their averages. Team A also bowled “in some cases way over their average,” said Bouchard. “We were no less than third place all through the tournament.”
Mayuko Burla, coach of NWT Team B, said her team “crushed it” throughout the tournament and she was happy her team made it to the playoffs.
Bowling NWT is looking to continue the momentum from Winnipeg into the next season and as they prepare to send a team to a tournament in St John’s, Newfoundland.
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“What we saw this year shows the strength of the Yellowknife program,” said O’Brien.
O’Brien invites anyone interested in joining a bowling league to call or head down to the Kingpin Bowling Centre. League nights start up again in August and happen twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday night.
Jasmine Nasogaluak contributed reporting.
