East Coast Games adds four new sports around Greater Saint John this weekend

More than 3,000 athletes are in the Greater Saint John area this weekend for Atlantic Canada’s largest annual multisport event.

The East Coast Games kicked off on Friday night, with a variety of different sports tournaments being hosted over three days in Saint John, Rothesay, Quispamsis, and Grand Bay-Westfield.

“We have four new sports participating with us this summer: golf, pickle ball, soccer, and flag football,” said Kelly Lynch, a director of the event.

Lynch said the addition of flag football this year is notable, since the sport is also gearing up for its first showing at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. 

Over 600 participants at the East Coast Games are competing in flag football this weekend.

“They are also running the very first flag football tournament in New Brunswick here at the East Coast Games,” said Lynch. “We’re just so happy to have them here.”

The event, which takes place around Greater Saint John on the same weekend each year, held its inaugural showing in 2015.

“Six sports were participating at that time and it just kind of continued to grow and grow and grow into something that is now today 25 different sports,” said Lynch.

Sports featured at the East Coast Games range from axe throwing to trail running.

Participants this weekend are from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.

“We also have some disc golf participants that have come up from Maine,” said Lynch. “It’s a really, really great opportunity for many sports to get involved and to run their own separate events, but yet come together. We all receive the same medal and same participant shirt. It’s a really great opportunity for many sports to be involved.”

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