McGill's Clement-Heydra among CIS athlete of the year nominees for BLG Award

CALGARY – Katia Clement-Heydra, a hockey player from McGill University, is among eight finalists announced by Canadian Interuniversity Sport and the national law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais for the 22nd annual BLG Awards, which were established in 1993 to recognize the top female and male athletes from universities affiliated with CIS.

It marks the sixth consecutive year that McGill has produced a national candidate. The Montreal-based institution leads all CIS universities with 19 nominees in 22 years – 11 of them women – who have earned a Quebec conference (RSEQ) nomination for the BLG Awards. Among the previous McGill nominees was Melodie Daoust, a finalist last year and an Olympic gold medalist hockey player for Canada at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, Mathieu Darche (BCom'00), a former Montreal Canadiens left-winger who was a BLG finalist in 2000 and Randy Chevrier (2001), a long-snapper and defensive lineman with the Calgary Stampeders, who also played in the NFL with Dallas and Cincinnati. Four McGill students have captured the award, namely Olympic gold medalist Kim St. Pierre in 2003, distance runner Dr. Linda Thyer in 1995 and the hockey duo of Ann-Sophie Bettez (BCom'11) and Marc-Andre Dorion, both of whom won in 2012.