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Alpine skiers hit the slopes for Yukon Cup

A busier than usual ski season didn't leave a lot of time for planning the Yukon Cup, the territory's alpine ski championships.
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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