In brief: Bekkering will play for Canada

Women’s basketball: Gonzaga University basketball player Janelle Bekkering will be late for school this year but she’ll be getting an education.

Bekkering has been selected to the Canadian national team for the world championships in the Czech Republic Sept. 23 through Oct. 3.

The senior from Taber, Alberta, helped Canada qualify for the 12-team tournament last summer.

The team is in France now for exhibition games, including Japan and Belarus. Then it’s a couple of games in Greece for a final tune-up.

Dave Trimmer

Fair rodeo may draw top names

Rodeo: With the rodeo season winding down, the chase to make the National Finals Rodeo heating up and a couple of other events in the area, the Spokane Interstate Fair rodeo is drawing a mixed bag of entries.

Some of the top names in the PRCA have entered, but whether they show up or not depends on if they conflict with the more lucrative Lewiston and especially Puyallup events.

The fair has also dropped to a two-day rodeo, Friday and Saturday at 7. With two shows, there are 37 bull riders, 34 saddle bronc riders and 23 bareback riders split between the performances, which usually have about 10 apiece.

Also, a large number of timed event competitors will be up in “slack” after the Friday performance. The session to accommodate overflow entries has 145 tie-down ropers, team ropers, steer wrestlers and barrel racers.

Among the entries are bareback rider Steven Pebbles, who set an Ellensburg arena record last week, up Friday, top-ranked header Turtle Powell in the team roping slack and local tie-down roper Tyson Durfey, ninth in the standings, up on Saturday.

Dave Trimmer