There was a dominant performance on Saturday at the Gateway Mall’s Baby Crawl.
The annual event saw four babies, all under a year old, compete in one race to the finish with prizes available for the top finishers. The event was done in cooperation with the Gateway Mall and Family Futures Inc.
Ellie G. dominated the event and claimed the top prize for the day. Finishing second after much coaxing was Ryan S.
Ellie’s father Stephen Gobeil said that using ‘Bluey’ as the award at the end made for an easy race.
“There was some bribing with the Bluey, yeah, and she loves to move around so it was pretty natural for her,” Gobeil said.
“She’s a pretty fast mover and I guess she’s competitive, so we got her starting her early,” Gobeil added.
Baby Mackenzie’s parents tried other strategies to get the race going in the Gateway Mall Baby Crawl on Saturday.
Baby Ryan S. and his parents posed for a photo with their prizes following the Gateway Mall Baby Crawl on Saturday.
Second place finisher baby Ryan S. Crawled towards his family during the Gateway Mall’s Baby Crawl on Saturday.
Gobeil is also an athlete and said Ellie seems to have inherited some of those abilities. He said that next on the Saturday afternoon agenda for Ellie was a bottle and a nap.
“She will go a little bit more and then she will pass out pretty hard,” Gobeil said.
Gateway Mall General Manager Sharon Faul said there were no heats this year as there were only four contestants, but the experience was the most important part.
“Everybody had fun,” Faul said. “It was great. We had a great support crowd here cheering them all on and it was just lots of fun to watch them and see their reaction. (It’s) always a fun event for Gateway Mall.”
The event ended with a tie for third the final two contestants did not cross the finish line. After a draw, Mackenzie was declared the third-place finisher.
“As far as I can recall, this is the first ever (tie),” Faul said. “We had to do a draw, which, it is what it is. We had like $1,500 worth of prizes donated by Gateway Mall merchants so we’re really happy that they support events like this and the community gets to come out and enjoy a great event and gets a little treat to take home-as.”
Faul said that they will plan for next year and hope for a few more contestants.
“Hopefully we’ll have babies in the right age category that we’ll be able to come participate again,” she said. “We’ll do it again because it’s lots of fun.”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
