A newbie, a returnee and a regular won at the Hot Hounds Race event on Sunday.
First-timer Ruth O’Beirne, infrequent racer Robert Siefke and mainstay Adam Robinson all picked up wins at the event hosted by the Dog Powered Sports Association of the Yukon (DPSAY) at the Takhini Hot Pools.
“It’s all in the dog, really, I suppose,” said Whitehorse’s O’Beirne.
“I was kind of nervous when they were talking about passing and all that business. I hoped there’d be no one (to pass).”
Racing her first DPSAY event O’Beirne took first place in the one-dog one-mile bikejor race with a time of four minutes and seven seconds.
The rookie was paired up with a very experienced dog for what was her first time bikejoring. O’Beirne was partnered with Katherine Scheck’s dog Grizzly, 11, a veteran of the Hot Hounds circuit.
“It’s pretty fun. I don’t know much about DPSAY, but bikejoring is pretty fun,” said O’Beirne.
“(Grizzly) knew where the trails were so I didn’t have to do anything.”
Siefke went one-for-one on Sunday, taking first in the two-dog two-mile bikejor at 8:20. He only did the one event since his dogs, Bonnie and Opie, work best as a team.
It was his first race in a year or two, he said.
“We have two dogs and one of them knows how to pull and the other one knows how to steer — to obey commands — so I need both of them to go forward,” said Siefke. “They only work as a team, they don’t work alone.
“It was super fast, it went really good. I live close by here so we train on these trails, so they know the trails.”
In both bikejor races there were close finishes. O’Beirne beat second place’s Claudia Wickert by three seconds and Siefke outpaced second’s Cynthia Corriveau by two.
It wasn’t nearly so close in the one-dog one-mile canicross. After placing third in the bikejor races, Whitehorse’s Adam Robinson topped the field with a time of 6:30, 1:11 ahead of the second place finisher.
Robinson, who rarely misses a DPSAY event, won the same race at the previous Hot Hounds event in July.
DPSAY plans to host another DPSAY race in September, weather permitting.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com
Results
One-mile bikejor
1st Ruth O’Beirne – 4:07
2nd Claudia Wickert – 4:10
3rd Adam Robinson – 4:20
4th Cynthia Corriveau – 4:30
5th Heather Robb – 5:02
6th Mattaeus Geister – 5:23
Two-mile bikejor
1st Robert Siefke – 8:20
2nd Cynthia Corriveau – 8:22
3rd Adam Robinson – 8:28
4th Sophie Firmenich – 8:41
5th Katherine Scheck – 9:22
One-mile canicross
1st Adam Robinson – 6:30
2nd Jaclyn Killins – 7:41
3rd Cynthia Corriveau – 7:42
4th Valerie Girard – 8:53