Warm weather made for fast snow at the Yukon Cross-Country Ski Championships on Saturday.
A newfangled slalom section added to the excitement.
And the biggest turnout in the event’s history more than doubled last year’s field.
A total of 83 skiers put their free technique to the test at the championships, hosted by the Whitehorse Cross-Country Ski Club.
“Normally, with races like this, we’re in the 40-60 range,” said chief of competition Allan Frostad. “So this is significantly more than we normally have.”
Adding to the excitement was a small slalom course racers had to complete as they went downhill into the stadium. Not only was it a first for the championships, it was likely the first time the skiers had to negotiate such a course in an official race.
“It just makes it far more entertaining for the kids to ski,” said Frostad. “It’s more interesting to watch someone slalom down the hill than watch them ski down the hill. And for the skiers it’s the same.”
Taking in the Gordon Taylor Award for the fastest open category times were a pair of juniors.
With no skier entered in the open men’s division, junior Fabian Brook took the award with the fastest time on the 10-kilometre course.
“It was good,” said Brook. “It was really fast for skiing in the Yukon, so it was really nice to be here. The weather was great.”
Brook, who set a personal best time for a 10-kilometre race, beat out second place finisher Reid Seal by almost five minutes in the small, two-person junior boys’ category for the win. He also outpaced all 10 skiers in the masters men division, including his father Dave Brook, who won the category, being the fastest each lap.
“He pretty much cleans my clock this year,” said Dave Brook, who won two bronze medals at the Masters World Championships a few weeks ago in Vernon, BC. “As soon as his voice went low, he was way faster than I am.
“It was a lot of fun, that’s all I can say about today.”
Junior girls’ Kendra Murray won the Gordon Taylor Award for the women, beating out four other juniors and the lone masters women racer, Lois Johnston.
“It felt really good,” said Murray. “Today isn’t a very serious race – last race of the season and it’s just for fun – but I felt really good and went really hard.
“The course was really fun – there was the slalom course in the stadium. It was really good, you had to stay on your toes, pay a lot more attention.”
In her category, Murray beat out Katie Peters in third, and second place finisher Erin Oliver-Beebe, who won the Yukon’s first medal in 14 years at last week’s biathlon nationals.
For the Schiffkorn Award, given out for the fastest 14-and-under times, it was midget girls’ Cambria Fuerstner and midget boys’ Caelen McLean, both of whom won their divisions.
In the juvenile girls’ division, Adrienne Hynes won gold by just 0.4 seconds over Nahanni Sagar in the five-kilometre course. On the boys’ side, Trevor Bray was the lone skier, taking gold.
For the peewee races, completing 2.5-kilometres, Ian Hogeboom-Burr won the boys’ while Hanna Shier won the girls’.
In the youngest atom divisions, Derek Deuling had the fastest time for gold in the one-kilometre boys’ race. In the girls, Dahlia Lapointe topped the list.
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RESULTS
Masters women – 7.5-kilometre
1st Lois Johnston - 0:25:01.7
Masters men – 10-kilometre
1st Dave Brook - 0:25:49.1
2nd Chris Schmidt - 0:26:57.4
3rd Dominic Bradford - 0:27:31.3
4th Rob McConnell - 0:28:25.4
5th Tony Painter - 0:30:28.9
6th Gord Wood - 0:31:09.3
7th Dermot Flynn - 0:31:47.0
8th Bob Sagar - 0:32:29.6
9th Dan Shier - 0:33:00.8
10th Sandro Holzinger - 0:33:23.9
Junior girls – 7.5-kilometre
1st Kendra Murray - 0:20:43.5
2nd Erin Oliver-Beebe - 0:22:22.4
3rd Katie Peters - 0:22:32.2
4th Jennifer Curtis - 0:22:46.0
5th Colae Ann Swenson - 0:23:44.8
Junior boys – 10-kilometre
1st Fabian Brook - 0:24:34.7
2nd Reid Seal - 0:29:16.7
Juvenile girls 5-kilometre
1st Adrienne Hynes - 0:16:08.2
2nd Nahanni Sagar - 0:16:08.6
Juvenile boys 7.5- kilometre
1st Trevor Bray - 0:20:41.6
Midget girls – 3.5-kilometre
1st Cambria Fuerstner - 0:09:30.6
2nd Alexis Gee - 0:09:49.9
3rd Natalie Hynes - 0:10:12.1
4th Kassi Wright - 0:10:41.1
5th Eliza Paul - 0:10:42.2
6th Lauren Dieckmann - 0:11:05.9
7th Solstice Sarin-Toews - 0:12:15.1
8th Zoe Painter - 0:12:15.3
Midget boys – 3.5-kilometre
1st Caelan McLean - 0:08:17.9
2nd Marcus Deuling - 0:08:44.3
3rd Mac Prawdzik - 0:08:44.7
4th Andrew Seal - 0:09:44.6
Pee-wee girls – 2.5-kilometre
1st Hannah Shier - 0:08:25.5
2nd Maggie Brook - 0:08:32.9
3rd Hannah Jirousek - 0:08:45.4
4th Regan Fuerstner - 0:09:22.4
5th Hannah Deuling - 0:09:27.8
6th Mira Mason - 0:09:48.7
7th Taylor Dieckmann - 0:09:54.9
8th Pier-Anne Menard - 0:09:56.1
9th Alizee Salesse - 0:10:10.5
10th Savannah Cash - 0:10:14.3
11th Sofia Bond - 0:11:07.6
12th Dagmar Janzen - 0:11:56.9
13th Hazel Lewis - 0:12:04.2
14th Grace Sheardown - 0:13:44.3
15th Maggie Fekete - 0:15:47.4
Pee-wee boys – 2.5-kilometre
1st Ian Hogeboom-Burr - 0:07:32.8
2nd Simon Cash - 0:08:07.3
3rd Leif Blake - 0:08:46.0
4th Elias Sagar - 0:08:47.9
5th Nichollis Schmidt - 0:09:02.9
6th Michael Kishchuk - 0:09:23.5
7th Ben Shier - 0:09:34.4
8th Micah Taggart-Cox - 0:09:46.4
9th Jake Draper - 0:10:05.6
10th Daniel Sennett - 0:10:10.4
11th Vincent Menard - 0:11:24.9
12th Sam Fleming - 0:12:22.8
13th Sasha King - 0:12:56.4
14th Manas Sarin-Toews - 0:14:32.7
15th Jake Charlton - 0:15:04.5
Atom girls – one-kilometre
1st Dahlia Lapointe - 0:02:24.3
2nd Sonjaa Schmidt - 0:02:36.4
3rd Peyton Twardochleb - 0:03:01.8
4th Mikayla Kramer - 0:03:02.7
5th Alliya Thomson - 0:03:17.7
6th Isla Hupe - 0:04:04.0
7th Maren Bilsky - 0:04:05.2
Atom boys – one-kilometre
1st Derek Deuling - 0:02:13.3
2nd Sasha Masson - 0:02:16.7
3rd Ben Puskas - 0:02:24.5
4th Victor-Emilie Thibeault - 0:02:24.9
5th Romeo Champagne - 0:02:27.5
6th Liam Diamond - 0:02:46.0
7th Caius Taggart-Cox - 0:02:49.4
8th Sullivan Bond - 0:02:55.0
9th Aidan Harvey - 0:02:57.3
10th Jude Slater - 0:03:09.7
11th Andrew Roberts - 0:03:29.1
12th Mettias Schmidt - 0:03:38.9
13th Felix Masson - 0:05:40.6
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com