A busier than usual ski season didn’t leave a lot of time for planning the Yukon Cup, the territory’s alpine ski championships. However, 22 skiers still competed in a shortened championships, hosted by the Alpine Ski Association of the Yukon, at Mt. Sima on Saturday.
“Usually we have Saturday and Sunday, but there were so many activities happening we were quite happy just to have the dual (slalom),” said Yukon head coach Yves Titley. “Next year we’ll go back to the old format of slalom, dual slalom and the GS (giant slalom).”
This season saw Arctic Winter Games trials, a pair of Outside competitions, the Arctic Games in Whitehorse and now the Yukon Cup, which consisted of just the dual slalom competition.
“We could have had more but we were struggling to get the course ready,” said Titley.
Competing in the Cup were five of the Yukon’s nine Arctic Games alpine skiers. K2 was one of the more competitive divisions with three Games athletes racing.
Taking first in the division was Whitehorse’s Josie Storey, ahead of Abby Hawes and Lyndsey Boorse. At the Games, Storey became the first Yukon skier to win a medal since the 2006 Arctic Games in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska. She won silver in juvenile female dual slalom event and also took in two fourth-place finishes.
“All the skiers on the (Yukon) team improved their times,” said Titley. “It was a similar course as at the Arctic Winter Games. It was the (same) length, same amount of gates and all of them got better times.
“Some of the younger kids - I mean the young, young ones - performed well,” he added. “Liam Diamond was pretty good for his age and he’s never trained. He just came in and raced.”
At the Purden Mountain Host Teck Kinder Slalom Event before the Games in Prince George, B.C., Storey won a silver and bronze in the K2 event. At the same event, Hawes won two bronze medals.
“If everything goes right, she’s usually one of the fastest,” said Titley of Storey.
It’s been a long season, but it’s not over yet. The Yukon’s alpine team will close out the season at the North Zone Finals in Smithers, B.C., in a couple weeks. Eight Yukon skiers are expected to compete.
RESULTS
E1 girls
1st Molly Fraser
2nd Greta Gladwin
E1 boys
1st Liam Diamond
2nd Orin Gladwin
3rd Alex Brown
4th Yakov Zurachenko
E2 boys
1st Shane Orban
2nd Charlie Hawes
K1 girls
1st Katie Vowk
2nd Samantha Richardson
K1 boys
1st Marek Henderson Pekarik
2nd Isaac Pumphrey
3rd Kenton Benoit
3rd Matthew McBride
K2 girls
1st Josie Storey
2nd Abby Hawes
3rd Lyndsey Boorse
Open women
1st Lisa Vowk
2nd Andrea Buckley
3rd Dori Switala
Open men
1st Yves Titley
2nd Peter Rudd
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com