YORKTON / SPORTS THIS WEEK - Unknown to most Canadian sport fans an important competition in lawn bowling took place recently in Windsor, Ont., and Saskatchewan’s Jordan Kos was right in the middle of the international action.
The 2025 Atlantic International Challenge was held in Windsor Sept. 18-25, an event which marked the return of global lawn bowling competition to Canadian soil—the first since 1994, featuring nations outside of North America.
The Atlantic International Challenge brings together top talent from the four participating nations: Canada, USA, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.
The event was a follow-up to the inaugural competition in Scotland last year.
“There’s no question it’s an honour to represent Canada at international events in general,” Kos, who lives in Regina, told Yorkton This Week, then adding doing it on home soil added to the feeling of pride. “. . . It was very memorable to say the least.”
The significance of hosting the international event in Canada was not lost on Kos.
“I wasn’t even alive when one was last held in Canada,” she said, adding there were competitors from 1995 in Windsor which created a “very special moment” for Canadian players.
The Atlantic International Challenge is an overall team event, in which nations will be competing to get the most points through the whole event. The event had five men and five women competing from each nation. This year added para lawn bowling disciplines as well.
Scotland would take the women’s and para crows, as well as the overall event title, while Canada’s men defended home soil with the title in their division.
“The Canadian men’s team did very well,” said Kos.
Kos noted the women finished third, but added games were very close, often a single point either way, so the team felt they were most certainly competitive with the other teams.
“We weren’t quite as successful as we were hoping,” said Kos.
Kos added internationally, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand tend to be the powerhouses – with players actually able to make a living off lawn bowling in those countries.
Canada is sort of among the next tier of countries, lacking the financial support of the the front-runners.
Still, the event in Windsor was generally a success and rather unique given most Canadian players had not performed against international players on home soil before.
“That in itself was very special,” she said, adding knowing the crows was partisan did create some added desire to do well. “There was some added pressure to perform well, to almost put on a show for them.”
