The 2004 Saskatchewan Summer Games came to a big finish on Saturday afternoon at the Weyburn Comprehensive School, where the 1,800 or so athletes and coaches visiting the city - as well as scores of local residents - gathered for the closing ceremonies of the Games.

Lt.-Gov. Lynda Haverstock was in attendance to officially close the Games, which began Aug. 8 and ran until Saturday.

"We are sorry that the Games have come to an end, and that we must say farewell to our guests. We are thankful to have been given the opportunity to be your host over this past week. It has been a genuine pleasure," said Ray Hamm, Games chair.

Many athletes attending the ceremonies expressed how much they enjoyed the past week.

"I thought it was really fun. There was lots of things to do, and lots of people that I met. I had lots of fun with my friends," said Spencer Maxwell, a Zone 8 speed swimmer.

"I think it went awesome. Staying in the dorms was lots of fun," said Brooke Peterson, a Zone 1 girls' basketball player.

"The Games were good, the host community was fantastic, and we all had a great time. We were lucky in the second half - we got a little sunshine," said Tom Leftley, a Zone 6 swimming coach.

At many of the venues, officials and parents were similarly forthcoming with their praise of the week-long Games.

"It was just an excellent job. You couldn't have planned this better anywhere Weyburn should do this every year," said Joy Johnson, meet referee for speed swimming. Johnson noted she had attended the 2000 Yorkton Summer Games previously.

"Weyburn did an awesome job with the Summer Games," said Cam Bauman, who was down from Humboldt to see her son play boys' soccer.

The closing ceremonies included the presentation of the Games Flag, awarded to the Zone team that accumulated the most flag points during the Games. Zone 2 (Regina), which scored 63 medals during the Games, was given the flag for scoring 133 points.

Weyburn and area was part of Zone 1, which scored 58 medals throughout the Games. Although they had fewer medals than Zones 2 and 6, the Zone 1 team finished second in total Games points with 122.

Zone 6 (Saskatoon) was third after Zone 1 with 113.5 points.

The medal count for Zone 1 was 24 gold, 20 silver and 14 bronze. The sport of speed swimming was the biggest source of medals for the Zone 1 team, as athletes scored some 35 medals.

Swimming coach Dustin Satre said Weyburn and Estevan have had strong clubs for the last few years, but many Zone 1 swimmers exceeded expectations this year.

Another part of the closing ceremonies was the presentation of the Joe Griffiths award, given to the zone showing the most improvement from the 2000 Yorkton Summer Games. Zone 7 (Kindersley/North Battleford/Biggar) was given the award.

The week of the Summer Games included 12 different sports, including speed swimming, synchronized swimming, girls' and boys' basketball, baseball, softball, boys' and girls' soccer, cycling, track and field, archery, golf and tennis.

As with any major athletic event, there were a few problems, especially with the weather. A major problem arose in the first three days of the Games because of foul weather, which forced re-scheduling of the baseball event. Baseball was also moved to Tom Laing Park from Jubilee Park, where it was too wet to play.

But for the most part, the Games came off relatively problem-free, said Games manager Chantelle Ernst.

"Everyone just said how smoothly it was running," said Ernst.

In addition to the athletics, the Games also featured a number of cultural events. The Weyburn Wheat Festival, Heritage Days and the Horticultural Show were held on Friday and Saturday, but the week also featured a cruise night, band night at the Youth Centre, a musical and a People's Choice art exhibition at the Allie Griffin Art Gallery.

Heather van der Breggen, chair of the cultural component of the Games, said they had many more people at some venues than they expected, such as the Happy Gang cruise night on Thursday. The open street car show, which had 80 entries, brought out 2,000 people at any given time in the evening, she said.

"It was packed. You could not move inside the beer gardens and then you couldn't move on the street in front of the band," van der Breggen said.

Tickets for the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, which was directed by Colleen Weimer, were in such demand that a fourth production night had to be added to Friday. All four nights were totally sold out, said van der Breggen.

Throughout the week, officials from other cities came to Weyburn to learn what they could seeing the Games in action. Dale Beck, who will captain the sport of swimming in the 2005 Jeux de Canada Games in Regina, said it was valuable for him to see how a multi-sport event differed from a single-sport tournament.

For example, there was an issue one morning with the warm-up music at the speed swimming event interfering with the tennis event next door at the Leisure Centre.

"Without any criticism at all, when you're organizing that many athletes, that many sports, there's going to be challenges during the course of running that whole week-long event," said Beck, adding that he thoroughly enjoyed the Games and thought Weyburn did a spectacular job.