(Quebec City, Que.) – British Columbia and Manitoba sit atop the standings in Pool A, while Alberta and Ontario remain unbeaten in Pool B following the opening day of competition at the 2026 Junior National Championship at the CEGEP Limoilou Sports Complex in Quebec City, Que.
Manitoba, which placed fifth at the 2022 Junior National Championship, enjoyed a strong start to the tournament with a pair of victories on Friday. Manitoba opened its campaign with a 66-21 win over Nova Scotia before defeating New Brunswick 55-36 to finish Day 1 with a perfect 2-0 record.
“It’s a new team, we’re slowly building and hopefully fine-tuning our game,” said Matthew Wilton. “I think cohesion is helping slowly build confidence.”
Defending Junior National Champions British Columbia opened its title defence in impressive fashion, cruising to an 84-35 victory over New Brunswick before completing a perfect day with a 67-36 win over Nova Scotia.
“It’s nice to be 2-0, puts us in a good spot in our pool,” said Cameron Gelowitz. “Some of our athletes don’t have as much experience, getting those 5-on-5 reps, for some of them it’s the first time at this level – they’re already making such great improvements, and we’re working well as a team.”
Having gone undefeated en route to gold at both the 2022 Junior National Championship and the 2023 Canada Games, British Columbia enters this year’s tournament with high expectations.
Gelowitz acknowledged that the team’s recent success has brought added pressure.
“There’s a little bit of pressure that we want to repeat,” he said.
In Pool B, Alberta remained unbeaten on opening day. Alberta earned a hard-fought 65-58 victory over Saskatchewan before defeating host Quebec 51-33 in the Feature Game to improve to 2-0.
“We haven’t had the whole team together all year, so it’s nice to finally be together,” said Ceilidh Nordell. “It’ll be fun to see where we get, especially with so many returning athletes from the 2022 Junior National Championship.
“Game 1, we hadn’t seen each other, figuring out how we play together, and Game 2, we were able to get the momentum back.”
Ontario enjoyed a strong start to the tournament, opening Day 1 with a 66-25 victory over Quebec before earning a convincing 76-47 win against Saskatchewan to improve to 2-0.
“Just the way even our players lower down in the rotation are doing such great things. It really comes down to the great coaching – shout-out to the coaches who are here. They’ve done a great job,” said Nasif Chowdhury.
After finishing eighth at the 2022 Junior National Championship, Ontario entered this year’s tournament with something to prove. According to Chowdhury, the team used that result as motivation heading into Quebec City.
“Our group has been together for the last four years, and we’ve put a lot of work in over the last little while. To be out here, put it together and get the whole team involved is huge,” he said. “Guys really took it to heart when we didn’t do well four years ago, and then to see the results – some big wins for us – it’s really cool stuff.”
Saturday’s action gets underway at 8:00 a.m. EDT with Nova Scotia taking on New Brunswick and Manitoba squaring off against British Columbia.
Full schedule and results, can be found on WBC’s event page.
About the 2026 Junior National Championships
The 2026 Junior National Championship serves as both a test event and a seeding tournament for the 2027 Canada Winter Games. The Junior National Championship is held once every four years as part of the Canada Games quadrennial cycle. Taking place in Year 3 of the cycle, the tournament provides a key competitive opportunity for Canada’s top emerging athletes while helping determine seeding for the Canada Winter Games in Year 4.