The torch is lit.

With 100 days left to go until the beginning of the 2018 B.C. Summer Games in the Cowichan Valley, the flame was ignited at Duncan鈥檚 BC Forest Discovery Centre on Thursday evening among musical performances and speeches by local dignitaries.

鈥淲e have been hard at work on these Games since its inception in 2012 when Cowichan was awarded this bid,鈥� said Cowichan 2018 president Jen Woike. 鈥淚t has been a great honour to be leading this team towards what will be the best Games yet.鈥�

The torch was carried into the ceremony by four specially selected individuals: Crofton gymnast Brooklyn Stobbe, who has won multiple medals in appearances at the 2016 and 2018 B.C. Winter Games; Duncan bowler Jenny Scholfield, a multiple medalist at the Special Olympics, Richard Peter, a five-time Paralympian and four-time medalist in wheelchair basketball; and Bill Keserich, the longtime leader of the Cowichan Valley鈥檚 soccer community.

Peter, Keserich and University of Victoria field hockey coach Lynne Beecroft 鈥� all members of the North Cowichan/Duncan Sports Wall of Fame 鈥� are honourary chairs of the 2018 B.C. Summer Games.

The 2018 B.C. Summer Games will take place from July 19-22, with events throughout the Cowichan Valley, from Ladysmith to Mill Bay to Lake Cowichan.