The Company of the White Wolf once again brought glory and fame to the Yukon, winning three out of four events at the Battle of Brooks in Brooks, Alta., on Aug. 11 and 12.
Eight combatants from the Whitehorse-based club travelled to the event, the largest medieval armoured combat tournament in western Canada, where the group successfully won the group buhurts for the third consecutive year.
Buhurts are team fights where victory is achieved by knocking opponents to the ground.
Individually, Jose Amoedo won gold medals in both the pole arm and sword and shield categories.
Pole arms are six-foot-long axes used in one-on-one fights with scoring similar to boxing and other combat sports. Sword and shield, unsurprisingly, involves participants wielding a sword in one hand and a large heater-style shield in the other. Strikes to the shield generally don’t count for scoring.
Participants competed in the longsword category using large, two-handed swords.
Land Pearson, president of the Yukon Medieval Combat Group, said the tournament included some new participants in the armoured combat scene with participants from Cranbrook, B.C., Hinton, Alta., Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Alta., and Saskatchewan.
“The guys from Saskatchewan, they’ve been coming out and helping out and doing a little bit outside the tournament getting into armour, but this was their first time participating,” said Pearson. “And Lethbridge had a few new guys as well that were very promising.”
The growth of the sport is something Pearson is happy to see.
“We’re kind of the dominant team in western Canada, so it’s good to see that these other teams are starting to rise up and be more of a challenge for us,” said Pearson. “It’s very exciting to see the growth of the sport in Canada.”
The Battle of Brooks and events like it are where Pearson sees the sport growing.
“I think Alberta is just a land of opportunity,” said Pearson. “There are so many people there and so many medieval festivals and fairs going on all the time. They could really start to build this a lot more.”
Next up for the Company of the White Wolf is an event in Dawson City over the Labour Day weekend and a training camp at the end of September with Ukrainian Igor Parfentev, a top-level fighter, when Pearson said he hopes to have fighters from other groups in western Canada and the western United States travel to Whitehorse for the event.
Contact John Hopkins-Hill at john.hopkinshill@yukon-news.com