Yukon orienteerers were among thousands and thousands searching out control points midweek.
Seventy-six Yukoners celebrated World Orienteering Day on May 24 downtown Whitehorse along the river front, with the start and finish at Shipyards Park.
The event, hosted by the Yukon Orienteering Association (YOA), was one of 2,129 held around the world with 115,515 participants at last count. Events took place on every continent, including Antarctica where 11 registered participants joined in at Australia’s Casey Station.
Not only is World Orienteering Day a celebration of the sport, it’s intended to introduce it to new people.
“There seems like there were a lot of new faces,” said YOA treasurer Ross Burnett.
“We’ve got a fairly active junior program right now and a lot of those kids were here. But generally, lots of old-timers and newcomers too.”
Wednesday’s event offered four different courses. Whitehorse’s Leif Blake posted the fastest time on the 4.7-kilometre expert course. Blake and fourth place’s Caelan McLean will race for Canada at the Junior World Orienteering Championships this July in Tampere, Finland. Their presence on the team marks the 11th straight year Yukon will be represented at the championship. This summer’s JWOC will be Blake’s second and McLean’s third.
The YOA will host the Yukon Orienteering Championships over three Wednesdays in June. The middle distance event will take place June 7 in Copper Ridge, the sprint June 14 at Mount McIntyre and the long June 21 at the Magnusson Trails off Grey Mountain Road.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
Results
Novice (2.0 km)
1st Declan, Nigel and Evan Wise — 16:29
2nd Heather Swystun — 17:52
3rd Chloe Tatsumi/Corinne Tetreault — 18:38
4th Kate and Pat Tobler — 19:57
5th Jakub Nemcek — 21:25
6th Aydri Mosquera/Linda MacKeigan — 21:57
7th Juno and Miki Hanatani — 22:16
8th Stian Langbakk/Pippa McNeil — 25:05
9th Megan Swanson/Joseph MacKeigan — 28:29
10th Emma Waldron — 28:40
11th Aven Sutton — 28:56
12th Aurelia Koh/Annie McNeill/Heidi Rumscheidt — 29:22
13th Aven, Fischer and Katherine Scheck — 30:02
14th Brooke Tobler — 33:41
15th Phineas Pearson — 60:39
Intermediate (3.0 km)
1st Judith VanGulick — 20:10
2nd Wendy Nixon — 25:14
3rd Kate Mason/Jamie Nickel/Sharon MacCoubrey — 27:03
4th Darryl Bray — 30:01
5th Ev Pasichnyk — 30:28
6th Ayla McDonald — 33:43
7th Deb Kiemele — 34:21
8th Helen Slama — 34:32
9th Darcy Olesen — 36:34
10th Craig Brooks — 37:33
11th Nesta Leduc — 37:52
12th Anais Hildes/Cassandra Jensen — 42:10
13th Gerry/Leo Willomitzer — 50:30
14th River, Peregrine, Anna and Lake Pearson — 52:59
15th Elvira Knaack/ Maura Glenn — 63:58
16th Wyatt and Heather Burnett — 74:17
Gloria Casselman/Charity Holmes — DNF
Advanced (3.9 km)
1st Nate Wood — 25:17
2nd Aisha and JF Roldan — 30:32
3rd Grant Abbott — 33:41
4th Martin Slama/Megan Coyne — 33:57
5th Georgianna Pearson — 34:27
6th Lara Melnik — 40:11
7th Jill Pangman — 40:52
8th Nicky Rosenberg — 59:09
Expert (4.7 km)
1st Leif Blake — 24:28
2nd Forest Pearson — 25:47
3rd Brent Langbakk — 26:34
4th Caelan McLean — 28:24
5th Darren Holcombe — 30:42
6th Emma Sherwood — 33:08
7th Jennifer MacKeigan — 34:54
8th Ross Burnett — 36:06
9th Barbara Scheck — 37:13
10th Sabine Schweiger — 37:43
11th Erik Blake — 38:09
12th Dave Hildes — 38:51