Big Country seniors have launched the first of their zone qualifiers for the two Alberta 55 Plus games scheduled for 2022.

The qualifiers got underway with cycling in Springbank on Sept. 10. Today, Sept. 15, golfers are on the course in Strathmore.

Up next is bocce here in Cochrane at the RiversEdge Campground.

Doug Campbell, Zone 2 55 Plus area director for west Rocky View, Canmore, Banff, and Lake Louise, says it has been 20 months of treading water, and while it's been frustrating, they feel they can now proceed.

Cochrane is also hosting qualifiers for darts on Oct. 6, euchre on Nov. 6, and will be hosting the 8-ball pool tournament in early 2022.

Alberta 55 Plus Sports offers 30 different sports with several different age and genre categories. There's everything from card games to curling, bowling, and slo-pitch. It can be competitive, but it's also highly sociable. The main focus is to encourage participation.

Zone 2 runs from Olds and Sundre to the north, High River in the south, and across the province from B.C. to Saskatchewan. It excludes Calgary, which is a separate zone.

"We have a very large drawing area, so we're encouraging seniors from all those towns to come, for instance, to play bocce here in Cochrane."

All participants are asked to be double vaccinated.

The Alberta winter games are being held in Edmonton in April 2022, and Peace River hosts the summer games in June 2022.

Provincial qualifiers for the national summer games are also underway. Kamloops is hosting these games from Aug. 23 to 26, and two Cochranites have already qualified.

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