Other local sports

The weekend’s Columbia Balloon Invitational proves to be more about fun and camaraderie than competition.

Hot-air balloon gives the disabled a chance to enjoy a sky-high experience. Gary Waldman brings Serena's Song, his specially equipped hot-air balloon, to Columbia this weekend.

World champion balloonist to compete in charity balloon event this weekend in Columbia.

It’s Tuesday night at Moonlight Hoops, an annual basketball tournament held at Douglass Park. The heat is unrelenting, but still a crowd of about 100 ultimately gathers.

After competing in the Sport 40-90 mountain biking race in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Mike Sutherland, Myron Michael and Scott Henson rest. Many of the racers have met in previous races and compete together during the season.

The Columbia Rockhounds will play in the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament on Saturday in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Our Group, a 50-and-older men’s basketball team, has won nine gold medals at the Show-Me State games, and Sunday they came within a win of winning their 10th.

Dim moonlight lit the banks of the Missouri River as Jeff Barrow left Glasgow, paddling his way through the evening in his long, pointy canoe. The light fog hovering over the water’s surface made steering especially difficult, even for the intermediate canoer.

One hundred twenty professional cyclists will come to the state in six weeks, and routes for the Tour of Missouri are now set.

Mid-Missouri catfishermen may be finding their sport in the midst of change — but not without their input first.

Brett Dufur helps the other two river guides, Paul Lowry and Sev Behrer, unload red and green canoes into Moniteau Creek, a small stream off the Missouri River, in Rocheport. A full-time book publisher and part-time river guide, Dufur is about to take 26 high school students from the St. Louis area on a canoe trip.

Beau Claridge competed in 13 Show-Me State Games track and field events Saturday and Sunday at Audrey J. Walton Stadium on the MU campus.

Brian Thompson, 23, of Trenton, won the 2005 national collegiate championship for MU. On Saturday, he hit enough clays to win gold in the Show-Me State Games’ trap and modern Skeet shoots.

Saturday was the first time Megan Nordhues competed in the Show-Me State Games. It was the first time she had competed in the same arena as the MU gymnastics team. It was also her first meet since a potentially career-ending injury.

Nine-year-old Kaitlyn Evans of Sturgeon loves to play all kinds of sports. Her father says she’s a natural athlete. But at this year’s Show-Me State Games, she got to play her favorite sport, disc golf. She has her father to thank for that.

As a child, he was glued to the television screen, captivated by his martial arts idols — Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and David Carradine. These stars inspired 39-year old James Goodwin of Mexico to start tae kwon do.

Fifty-seven faces, sweaty in the swamp-like summer humidity, turned to the bull’s-eyes across a field from them Saturday morning in Stephens Lake Park.

Canote, 14, has been running for just three years, but participated for the first time in the games this weekend.

“I thought I’d try something harder,” Canote said. “The competition is tougher than most of the other meets I go to.”

After a three-year absence, Jim LaRue returned to the Show-Me State Games tennis competition this summer.

Kyle Hawkins had just spent another 20 minutes or so being interviewed on his cell phone, talking once more about the issues that have made him an unintentional trailblazer.