Les Lawton to lead Team Canada in Turkey
Les Lawton, head coach of the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, will take the reins of the Canadian entry at the 2011 Winter Universiade taking place in Erzurum, Turkey from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6.
The Universiade is an International multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a combination of the words "University" and "olympiad".
The 24th edition of the winter games will feature 11 sports: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, freestyle skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, nordic combined, short track speed skating, ski jumping and snowboarding.
The Canadian women’s ice hockey entry in Turkey will be overseen by Lawton with York University’s Stacey Colarossi and Carleton University’s Mandi Duhamel assisting behind the bench.
In his 29th season at the helm at Concordia, Lawton has enjoyed tremendous success over the past three decades both in domestic and international competitions. The winningest coach in Canadian university women’s hockey history with a 586-282-72 overall record entering the 2010-‘11 campaign, the Montreal native led the Stingers to the inaugural CIS national title in 1998 and to a repeat performance in 1999. He also guided Canada to a 6-3 gold-medal win over the United States at the 1994 world championship in Lake Placid, N.Y.
“It’s always a tremendous honor to represent Canada on the international stage,” Lawton said. “The team did really well in 2009 and we’re excited about the opportunity to defend the Universiade title.”
Canada heads into the event as defending champion following a 3-1 gold-medal victory over host China in Harbin in 2009, when the sport made its Universiade debut.
Canada is set to open the five-game, round-robin competition against Finland on Jan. 27 and face the USA in its fourth match on Jan. 31. The top four teams at the end of the preliminary round advance to the semifinals.
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