Ryan Bester will be Canada's baton-bearer at this year's Commonwealth Games, his seventh, in Glasgow, Scotland.Albert Perez/Getty Images
Canadian Ryan Bester will take centre stage twice Thursday as the Commonwealth Games open in Glasgow.
With lawn bowls the only sport on offer on Day 1 of the Games, the 41-year-old will be in the spotlight as he faces India before joining wheelchair basketball player Kady Dandeneau in leading Canada into the opening ceremony at the OVO Hydro arena.
Dandeneau will serve as Canada’s flag-bearer while Bester carries the team baton.
Dan Galbraith / Commonwealth Sport Canada/Supplied
Commonwealth Sport Canada announced Tuesday that Kady Dandeneau, above, and Ryan Bester will lead the country into the opening ceremony in Glasgow.Dan Galbraith / Commonwealth Sport Canada/Supplied
The baton is to the Commonwealth Games what the torch is to the Olympics, with the King’s Baton Relay beginning at Buckingham Palace on Commonwealth Day – March 10, 2025. Each of the competing countries has its own baton to bring to the opening ceremony.
For Bester, this is a Canadian-record seventh Commonwealth Games. He won silver in men’s singles in both 2014 and 2018 as well as bronze in 2006.
A native of Hanover, Ont., Bester moved to bowls-loving Australia 20 years ago to pursue his sport. But he hasn’t forgotten his roots.
“It’s still very special putting the Maple Leaf on your back,” said Bester. “I’m a very proud Canadian.”
Also a superstitious one. He always has a chocolate milk to drink the morning of a competition.
The Games will see more than 3,000 athletes from 74 Commonwealth nations and territories compete for 215 gold medals over 11 days.
Glasgow took over hosting duties on short notice after Australia’s Victoria state government withdrew in 2023, citing hosting costs. As a result, the schedule has been reduced from the 19 sports contested four years ago in Birmingham, England, to 10: artistic gymnastics, athletics, 3x3 basketball, boxing, judo, lawn bowls, netball, swimming, track cycling and weightlifting. There is para competition in athletics, 3x3 basketball, bowls, swimming, track cycling and weightlifting.
The Canadian team numbers 148 athletes and 91 officials led by chef de mission Erica Wiebe, who won wrestling gold at the 2016 Olympics as well as the 2014 and ‘18 Commonwealth Games.
The Commonwealth Games and World Bowls Championships, each held every four years, are the two premier competitions on the lawn bowls circuit.
Bester is the reigning world champion. He defeated Ireland’s Gary Kelly in 2023.
A member of the first induction class of the World Bowls Hall of Fame, Bester has also won two silver medals and one bronze in singles and one gold and two bronze in pairs play at the world championships since 2004.
Australian Aaron (Disco) Wilson, who consigned Bester to silver in 2018, is the two-time defending Commonwealth Games champion. Wilson defeated Bester 21-14 at the Gold Coast’s Broadbeach Beach Club, which at the time was Bester’s home club.
Wilson celebrated that victory by taking off his shirt for a celebratory lap in tribute to Kelvin Kerkow, the last Australian to win the event at the games. Kerkow marked his 2006 triumph in Melbourne by ripping off his shirt before being mobbed by teammates who carried him around the green on their shoulders while AC/DC’s It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll) played.
A jubilant Wilson also went topless after defending his title four years ago.
In his seventh Commonwealth Games, Bester will be taking part in a faster version of lawn bowls, as the sport is working to be included in the 2032 Olympics.Dan Galbraith/Supplied
The bowls competition will have a new look at the Games this time, being held indoors on an artificial surface.
“I think it’s going to be a really good competition to watch,” Bester said in an interview.
“People will be really close and I think the venue’s going to be amazing,” he added, referencing the Scottish Event Campus.
With four games going on at the same time, the bowls competition will resemble a curling event. And when host Scotland competes, Bester reckons the venue will have a raucous darts-like feel.
A shortened version of the sport is being showcased in Glasgow.
Previously singles games were won by the first to 21 points, lasting 90 minutes to two hours. The games in Glasgow will be two seven-end sets with a one-end tiebreaker if needed, reducing game time to about an hour.
“I think the format’s going to open it up for a lot of countries having a chance to win gold,” said Bester, who is seeded fifth.
He believes talent will show through indoors with the elements removed. And skill is needed with athletes trying to locate a jack some 24 to 32 metres away.
The format changes in Glasgow are part of a push to get bowls into the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
“Which I think has a pretty good chance,” Bester said. “Australia loves bowls and they get to pick a few sports [to add to the Olympic schedule].”
Canada has won 12 Commonwealth Games bowls medals but has not made the podium since Bester won singles silver in 2018, when the Games were held in Australia.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Canada also has an excellent medal shot in women’s singles through Kelly McKerihen, who was runner-up at the 2023 worlds and won bronze in 2012 and ‘16. The 40-year-old McKerihen, a Toronto native now living Down Under, is taking part in her fourth Commonwealth Games.
Bester was 17 when he competed in his first Commonwealth Games in 2002 in Manchester, England. Two years later, he and pairs partner Keith Roney became the first Canadians to win a world title.
After finishing college, Bester spent four months playing for a club in Sydney, Australia, before winning bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. He made the move to Australia permanent at the end of the year when he was offered a full-time job.
Bester has made Australia his home ever since. Now married with three children, he is bowls manager at Musgrave Hills Bowls Club in Southport on Australia’s Gold Coast, where he looks after more than 400 members.
Bester needs to win his group, which also includes the Falkland Islands, Kenya, Malaysia and Malta, to advance to the semi-finals. He expects to battle the likes of Australia’s Wilson and Scotland’s Alex (Tattie) Marshall, a five-time gold medalist competing in his eighth Games, as well as athletes from England, Ireland and Wales for the medals.
Bester and McKerihen will team up with John Bezear of Kitchener, Ont., and Emma Boyd of Tsawwassen, B.C., respectively, in pairs play.
Bester and Bezear won pairs bronze at the 2012 and 2023 worlds while Boyd was a member of the Canadian team that earned triples bronze at the 2023 worlds.
Calgary’s Anne Hibberd and Moncton’s Jean Stairs will play pairs in the para bowls competition.
Canada has won 12 Commonwealth Games bowls medals in all but has not made the podium since Bester’s silver in 2018.
Decorated swimmer Kylie Masse changes direction, ready to pursue 2028 Olympics
Canada has taken part in every Commonwealth Games since hosting the inaugural edition, then known as the British Empire Games, in Hamilton in 1930 and enters Glasgow ranked third on the all-time Games medal table.
Canadian athletes won 92 medals – 26 gold, 32 silver and 34 bronze – to rank third behind Australia (179 medals) and England (176) in 2022.
Canada’s 51-person track team in Glasgow features 25 Olympians, who between them have earned 21 Olympic medals. Leading the way are star sprinters Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Jerome Blake, decathlete Damian Warner, hammer throwers Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg and shot putter Sarah Mitton.
Swimmers Kylie Masse and Josh Liendo and weightlifter Maude Charron are also competing.