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Team Canada’s Lee Melymick (left), Kyrell Sopotyk (second from left), Garrett Ostepchuk (second from right) and Reed De’Aeth (right) with Commonwealth Games bronze medals around their necks. (Image Credit: Wheelchair Basketball Canada/Instagram)
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Former Minto among Sask. teammates to win bronze at Commonwealth Games

Jul 30, 2026 | 10:40 AM

Commonwealth Games bronze medals are headed back to Saskatchewan with three members of Canada’s wheelchair basketball team.

Regina’s Garrett Ostepchuk and Aberdeen Kyrell Sopotyk helped Team Canada win bronze in the men’s 3×3 wheelchair basketball tournament in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday.

Ostepchuk had five points, two rebounds and three assists in the 19-9 win over host Scotland, while Sopotyk added one point from off the bench.

It’s the first international medal for the pair, with Ostepchuk previously playing for Canada at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2024 Paralympics.

Meanwhile, Sopotyk made his Commonwealth Games debut for Canada after less than five years in the sport.

The former Prince Albert Minto was a member of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers when he suffered a spinal cord injury in a snowboarding accident in Jan. 2021 at Table Mountain near North Battleford. He began playing the sport in October later that year and made his competitive debut at the 2022 CWBL Nationals in Montreal. He also won a bronze medal for Saskatchewan in the male 1,500-metre wheelchair race at the 2022 Canada Summer Games, and recently finished his freshman season with the University of Arizona Wildcats’ men’s wheelchair basketball team.

Also winning bronze for Canada was coach Jared Sajtos, who grew up in Saskatoon.

Speaking with Wheelchair Basketball Canada, Ostepchuk said it was a strong response after Team Canada fell 18-13 in the semi-finals to England earlier on Wednesday.

“I think mentally we just stayed focused on the moment,” Ostepchuk said.

“We didn’t let too much affect us mistakes-wise, or the officiating, or what Scotland were doing. We just focused on our game and that was the goal the entire time.”

It’s the third medal headed back to the province, after Saskatoon gymnast Jordan Carroll won a pair of gold medals in the men’s team event and men’s pommel horse earlier this week.

Wednesday’s bronze brings Canada up to 39 total medals in Scotland, and the nation sits second in the medal tally with 14 gold medals.

with files from paNOW’s Logan Lehmann